SPICE OF DEATH
‘Lethal high’ is destroying North East lives and could lead to fatalities – police
THESE pictures reveal the devastating impact zombie drug Spice is having on our city.
The twisted bodies of addicts lay sprawled in Newcastle city centre.
Passers-by have become so used to the sight of broken men and women lining the streets that they barely bat an eyelid as they spend their lunch breaks dodging beggars desperate for their next fix.
Spice has become the scourge of the city and emergency services are warning of the strain the drug is placing on their already stretched services.
The North East Ambulance Service has been called out to a staggering 138 incidents involving lethal highs since March – with 19 in June so far.
Earlier this week they rushed to help a stricken user slumped unconscious in Pudding Chare off the Bigg Market.
Witnesses described seeing the victim flopped in the street during torrential rain, oblivious to the small crowd of worried onlookers surrounding him.
And just days before three men – one covered in his own vomit – were spotted collapsed on the Bigg Market.
A NEAS spokesperson said: “Lethal highs are not safe to use and carry a serious health risk. The chemicals they contain have, in most cases, never been used before in drugs for human consumption and they are putting people’s lives at risk.
“As a service, we don’t discriminate; we will attend anyone who is poorly enough to need our help, however our advice is not to take them as they are putting people’s lives in danger and endangering the lives of others by potentially delaying our response to someone else.”
After making 12 arrests in just four days, Northumbria Police issued a warning that anyone found in possession of Spice will be arrested.
The former legal high was classified as a Class B drug in December last year and since the change in legislation officers have made 27 arrests as part of their investigation into lethal high use in the city centre.
The crackdown has seen 21 people charged while six have been released under investigation.
Now police are warning people could die through the use of Spice or Power, a similar drug.
Superintendent Paul Knox, of North-
umbria Police’s Central Area Command, said: “Despite the number of reports only a handful of people have been taken to hospital and nobody has fallen seriously unwell. However, these drugs are unpredictable and there is the potential that somebody could die.
“When people take these drugs it causes their breathing to become very shallow and more often than not people fall unconscious. This has led to reports of people slumped unconscious across the city centre which is distressing for other members of the public.
“This isn’t something we want to see in our city and so we are working closely with the city council, public health and the ambulance service to put users in touch with various support networks available to them.”
Coun Nick Kemp, chair of Safe Newcastle, said: “We have approached the situation using both education and enforcement with our Trading Standards team working alongside the police to track down the source of the drug, and finding out which shops have been selling the substance to members of the public. We take the safety of Newcastle residents very seriously, and we are hitting home the powerful message that this drug can be damaging to people’s health.”
Anyone who needs drug advice should contact FRANK on 08700 77 6600 or visit www.talktofrank.com. You can also contact local charity Lifeline on 0191 2614719 or by visiting http://www.lifeline.org. uk/