Psychotic Spice inmates wreak havoc at hospitals

PSYCHOTIC users of the synthetic cannabis drug Spice are causing havoc at Welsh hospitals as the drug epidemic grips the country.

Doctors at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital and Princess of Wales in Bridgend are having to turn to general anaesthetic to bring drug users under control as cases have spiralled from one or two cases a year to three or four each night at weekends.

The spike in problems is due to the knock-on effect of prisoners having taken the drug coming in from Swansea and Parc Prison, in Bridgend.

Swearing, kicking and biting, patients are lashing out at staff and are smashing equipment and targeting windows because of the powerful drug.

Andy Macnab, emergency medicine consultant at Morriston Hospital, said Spice was the biggest culprit for cases of violence and aggression being seen against accident and emergency staff.

Mr Macnab said: “Synthetic cannabinoids, or so-called Spice, does not act like cannabis. It makes users very unpredictable and accounts for a large number of incidents of violence and aggression in the department.

“Users can become completely out of control, or they are floored by the drug and stop breathing. Spice can make them really aggressive and psychotic.

“It can cause fits which can’t be controlled, and users can end up in ITU because they develop an extremely high temperature or heart rates of 150200bpm. Some people become very aggressive. It can take several staff and a couple of hours to deal with them.

“It can take a member of security staff, two or three nurses and a couple of doctors to deal with them.”

A new report by Public Health Wales has found that hospital admissions related to cannabis and “synthetic cannabinoids” such as Spice have increased from 518 in 2011/12 to 1,323 in 2016/17.

Spice, otherwise known as black mamba or frozen spice, is known as the “zombie drug” and has led to a rise in the number of people slumped and passed out in high streets during daylight hours.

Mr Macnab added: “Aggressive behaviour can include biting, kicking, swearing and smashing equipment and windows. They arrive in the back of police vans or by ambulance, sometimes unconscious.

“We get cases throughout the week, but it gets worse at weekends. We treat their symptoms, and give them fluids. Sometimes we have to sedate them or even give them a general anaesthetic because they are a risk to themselves and others.

“We have a problem with inmates who have taken Spice coming into Morriston and the Princess of Wales EDs (emergency department) from Swansea and Parc prisons. It is getting worse. It used to be one or two cases a year, then a few a month and now it is three or four each night at weekends.”

Findings in the new report show for all age groups there were 6,518 recorded hospital admissions linked to illicit drugs – treating 5,138 different people – in 2016/17.

The past decade has seen the level of patients admitted soar by a massive 36.8% from 3,756 to 5,138.

Alcohol is also a factor in problems being faced by A&E staff, which has led Mr Macnab to support plans for a minimum price for alcohol.

“I am in agreement,” he said. “We see the effects of too much alcohol when they get drunk and fall over, injure themselves or get into a fight.

“We are seeing more people with liver failure.”