‘New threat’ of vape-spiking offences placing schoolchildren in danger
Vape-spiking cases in the UK are a “new threat”, with schoolchildren among those falling victim to the offence, i has been told.
Police warned they are increasingly concerned after officers found devices containing substances such as THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, and spice, a powerful synthetic drug.
“People might be offered a vape but might not necessarily know what they are about to inhale. There are vapes out there which are dangerous,” said Dean Ames, the Metropolitan Police’s forensic drugs operation manager. Spiking is typically considered a risk in pubs and clubs – when a substance is put into a person’s body through a drink or injection without their consent. But police warned it was also an issue in schools, as e-cigarettes rise in popularity among young people.
The Met’s chief licensing officer, Ian Graham, said Scotland Yard is “aware of vapes being used at school and of young people being spiked there”.
One headteacher said pupils had fallen seriously ill after using spiked vapes, adding: “This could be one wrong choice that could result in a young person losing their life.” Vape-spiking can occur when a person purchases an e-cigarette containing unexpected intoxicants, when a person accepts a vape unaware that it has other substances in it or when a vape is tampered with. Trading Standards has found around a third of vapes may be illegal, for reasons including containing banned substances.
Helen Millichap (inset), the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner for local policing, suggested that cracking down on spiking in general was proving difficult, with the arrest figure “not as high as we’d like it”.
Part of the problem appears to be the challenge posed by detecting vape pens because of their size and because their smell fades quicker than cigarettes in busy venues. Eren Bessim, the training and development manager for the Safer Business Network, said staff in night-time venues across London are taking “measures to be proactive, going outside, actually stopping people from smoking inside, thinking: ‘Have I spotted that person physically trying to give the pen to that person?’”
E-cigarette detection is also problematic in schools, where vape pens have been designed to look like highlighters, key rings, and even functional pens, according to teachers. Though awareness of vape-spiking in schools is rising, the true scale of the problem is difficult to pinpoint, according to the Met’s Mr Graham, who added: “It’s such a new methodology. It’s so easy to put those substances into a vape and pass it.” A report from Action on Smoking and Health found that almost half (47 per cent) of the young people surveyed said their main source of procuring vapes was other people, rather than purchasing the devices. “For some young people, they are getting vapes from older teenagers who could be siblings or unfortunately sometimes it is more sinister and connected to county lines and grooming,” said Helena Conibear, CEO of The Talk About Trust, which provides training on substance abuse in schools.
She said it is not only parents and teachers worried about vapespiking, but pupils, too.
“Wherever we go in the country and whatever assemblies we do, we always ask ‘What do you think the biggest issues are in your community?’ Until two or three years ago, alcohol and cannabis were the first two issues raised but now, universally, everyone says vaping.”
The warning from the Met Police about vapes comes as the force tries to crack down on spiking cases more broadly and increase the number of perpetrators arrested.
The force said it was working with night-time venues such as bars and nightclubs to help prevent spiking.
Ms Millichap said the level of spiking arrests was “not as high as we’d like it”. She added: “Some of that is to do with when reports are received and how realistic it ever will be to arrest somebody who has not been reported at the time it’s happening.”