NEW BREED OF DRUGS BLIGHT CITY
OUR SPECIAL REPORT REVEALS THE TERRIFYING EFFECTS OF FORMER ‘LEGAL HIGHS’ IN THE HEART OF CARDIFF’S SHOPPING DISTRICT
DISTURBING footage which appears to show Cardiff city centre’s problem with drugs like Spice and Black Mamba has emerged.
It comes as shop owners in the area say they see people turned into “zombies” by the former “legal highs” on a daily basis.
The video shows a man on St Mary Street doubled over and swaying.
The unidentified man’s upper half hangs limply as if frozen as his legs shake in the middle of the busy city centre street.
It was taken on Wednesday by a concerned bystander and sent to us.
It is not known whether the man was definitely under the influence of synthetic cannabis brands known as Black Mamba, Spice or Frozen Spice – but this effect has been noticed in users across the UK as the popularity of the cheap highs grows.
As part of an investigation, we spoke to a drugs charity, users, a dealer and city shops about Cardiff’s problem with Spice.
Drugs charities say the highlyunpredictable drug is attractive to young, vulnerable people who are at risk of exploitation, contracting diseases like HIV or even dying.
As different strains emerge, they can take a dreadful toll on users. One Manchester man was left fighting for his life in intensive care after smoking it.
One user told us the attraction for users was that “you lose your grip on reality”. And a dealer told us he had no shame, claiming users would get their hands on it anyway.
Shop owners, speaking anonymously for fear of being targeted for sharing their concerns, told us of the daily drug market they see outside their shops on St Mary Street.
One said: “This is a daily occurrence – when we arrive to open up in the morning there are people outside and you can tell they’ve taken something.
“From early in the morning until late at night you see people dealing and buying drugs.
“They smoke them and become zombies.
“When they recover they start begging – you can see people start to walk faster and faster down the street.”
Spice is a general name for a group of drugs classed as “synthetic cannabinoids” and first surfaced as a problem two or three years ago.
Made up of a range of amphetamines and other laboratory-created chemicals that vary wildly from batch to batch, pre-ban it was being sold either over the counter or online under a variety of brand names that made no bones about their purpose, like Annihilation and GoCaine.
They are cheap, selling for as little as £5 a gram and are popular among vulnerable children, often teenage runaways or those not long out of care and already at risk from exploitation.
The owner of one recently opened business in Cardiff said: “You have the utmost sympathy for people, but when they stand here smoking Spice or whatever else they stop people coming in. You see people they are dealing and distributing it amongst one another.
“You see the packets once they leave – Spice or Black Mamba or whatever other garbage they are smoking.”
“They’ll turn up and use and then just sit, slumped into a bench or open shop front.”
A third shopkeeper couldn’t understand why authorities hadn’t done more to solve the problem: “It’s gotten worse since the Louis (restaurant) closed – it’s meant that they have a shop front to sit in and use.
“There has to be something that can be done to help these people – by the council or someone. It would help us and them.”
Spice user Hugh*, 37, has said that Cardiff still has a thriving marketplace for the drug, despite it being banned in May of last year.
“It’s gotten a little more difficult, you can’t just walk into a shop and get it any more but it is still everywhere,” he said.
Hugh – who has been using Spice for the last five years – started using the drug as an alternative to cannabis.
“I’d taken junk in the ‘90s but I’d been clean except for weed,” he said.
“But Spice isn’t like that. It took over my life, it’s like heroin like that – you just lose your grip on reality.”
David*, 23, is also a regular user of the former legal highs.
He says that he could get them in 10 minutes anywhere in the city centre.
“In Cardiff it’s just as easy as it was to get Mamba or Spice, it’s just become a little bit more expensive,” he added.
“I hadn’t really taken drugs before this but Spice has me gripped hard, it’s given me nightmares, made me wet myself in the street and made me look like a corpse, but I can’t shake it.”
A dealer – who shared his insight into his criminal world anonymously – said getting hold of the drugs is getting more difficult but that the users are hooked so they’ll pay whatever it costs.
“Since they banned it you have had to get clever, but you can still sell it on the street or online,” he said.
“For these people it’s all they want in life and it is easier for me to get hold of than pills or anything else.
“So sometimes I stand in Adamsdown or the city centre and I can make £300 in an hour.”
Asked about the effect his dealing had on the users or the city, he was
unrepentant.
“Look, they are going to get high or drunk or whatever,” he said.
“I sell them Spice or someone else sells them heroin or tranquillisers or they just get drunk.
“So long as that is true, why shouldn’t I make some money from it?”
Drug awareness charity Frank warns that Spice can make it difficult for users to coordinate their movements or focus – which is why they can appear to have just slumped standing up.
It said: “Mood and perception can change and concentration and coordination may become difficult.
“Synthetic cannabinoids, possibly because of their potency, are more likely to be associated with hallucinations than natural cannabis.”
It also warns that because the chemical composition that makes up the drugs is constantly changing, the effects are difficult for people to judge.
“We know that there have been a number of deaths that have been associated with the use of synthetic cannabinoids, either on their own or with other substances,” the charity said.
“This means it’s easier to use too much and experience unpleasant and harmful effects.”
It warns that users experiencing extreme episodes could suffer psychotic episodes that last up to several weeks.
Users who are also on anti-depressants are at particular danger, Frank warns.
Mixing Spice with anti-depressants could “stimulate serotonin activity in the brain, which can lead to serotonin syndrome, causing high fever, rapid pulse, sweating, agitation, confusion, convulsions, organ failure, coma and even death”.
South Wales Police urged anyone seeing issues like this to contact them.
Chief Inspector Jacqueline Johnson said: “It is vital for the current and future prosperity of Cardiff’s city centre, that all criminal activities or acts of anti-social behaviour are pursued and dealt with.
“Anybody who experiences the ill effects of such behaviour are urged to contact the police.
“A dedicated team of city centre police officers and PCSOs regularly patrol all corners of the city centre and have a range of measures available to them to deal robustly with those who are involved in this type of behaviour.
“These aim to ensure law-abiding visitors, business owners and workers, are not adversely affected by the issue.
“There is work ongoing with statutory partners and other support agencies which is focussing on creating lasting solutions to issues such as substance misuse and homelessness on the city’s streets.”
Some names have been changed at the request of the interviewees