Spice ‘turns people crazy’

HOMELESS addicts living in Britain’s “legal high capital” have told how lethal Spice turns people into “mad men”.

Maidstone in Kent has the highest number of people hospitalised after taking socalled legal highs.

Dan Nicoleson, 31, has been homeless for a year.

Losing his job in a call centre led to him being evicted from his flat in the town.

The Maidstone resident, who became homeless after developing depression, said: “I did them (legal highs) once when they were legal in shops (before 2016).

“I had a really bad experience. I blacked out for six hours. I woke up not knowing who I was, where I was or anything.

“That was literally just a few drags of a joint.

“I know a couple of people take them (legal highs). They aren’t hard to get hold of.

“Nothing has changed since they became illegal. It’s still easy to get run straight into a wall head first. He cracked his head open.

“The stuff is horrible. I know they have made it illegal but it’s still easy to get hold of.”

He said Spice went for about £10 a gram in the town and was sold openly.

Will Collings, 50, said: “I have only done it once. It got me in hospital in Hastings.

“A mate of mine said, ‘Try some of this.’ I had a flat then. I smoke weed and drink so I thought I’d be all right. I only had two or three tokes of it and I do not remember anything after that.

“I woke up in hospital. The weird part of it was I tried to sit up and I was handcuffed on both sides to the frame of the bed. I don’t remember anything of what happened but apparently I was yelling and screaming in this doorway. I’ve not touched the stuff since.”

Meanwhile, self-confessed alcohol abuser Dermott Mulligan, 59, said he did not use Spice himself but knew that it was smoked by many among the homeless community in the area.

He added: “Maidstone is s***. I do not like it.”