US keeps NK sanctions
JAILBIRDS are sneaking hits of zombie drug Spice under wardens’ noses – by vaping it.
The lags have found a way of squirting the Class B substance into e-cigarettes they are allowed because of a smoking ban.
And guards are none the wiser because the mind-bending drug gives off no odour when mixed with legal vape liquid sold in the canteen.
The ruse was uncovered at Leicester nick by the Independent Monitoring Board.
The watchdog also found violence has shot up since it began.
Smuggled
Spice – a synthetic version of cannabis which can cause psychotic episodes – can be smuggled into jail in liquid form or on drug-soaked paper. Its worrying emergence arose when the board found half the 400 inmates at Leicester claimed they could get hold of drugs.
“All indicators showed new psychoactive drugs were readily available,” said its report, which added they included a “growing number of manmade, mind-altering chemicals”.
Inspectors said this was undermining security at the prison as it “continued to affect the stability” there. DONALD Trump has renewed sanctions on North Korea, citing an “extraordinary threat” from its nuclear weapons.
The move came as the US and South Korea cancelled two training exercises in the region planned for August.
And it was just 10 days after President Trump said there “is no longer a nuclear threat” following a meeting with leader Kim Jong-un. Democrats claimed the latest Random drug tests have caught users, with twice as many positive results as expected. And medics were called out once a day to deal with prisoners who had taken Spice.
The report said violence was “substantially higher” than at the time of the 2016 inspection. In six months last year there were 56 assaults on prisoners, 28 fights and 73 assaults on staff.
Fumes
The report concluded a combination of the smoking ban and “the influence of new psychoactive drugs” was partly to blame. A People investigation earlier this month told how more than 500 prisoners were treated for the effects of Spice in one year at HMP Humber. And in April, we reveale d how nurses have been told to stop tending convicts at Holme House prison in Stockton-on-tees for fears of exposure to fumes. The latest revelation comes after Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons found a “staggering” rate of suicides at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, Bucks. There have been 20 since 2011. Its report slammed staff shortages at the jail which holds just over 600 men, mainly remand prisoners and those serving short sentences, alongside some category A prisoners. The Prison Service said it was tackling the issue “head on”. message contradicts earlier boasts about the success of the summit. But the US has had a national emergency in place over North Korea since 2008 and presidents routinely renew it and related sanctions.
President Trump extended the national emergency on Friday due to “the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the government of North Korea”.