Alarm over spice drug in our jails

THE ‘zombie drug’ spice is so rife in jails that prisoners are twice as likely to be using the drug when they leave as when they entered, an expert has warned.

Dr George Ryan, of Public Health England, said spiralling use of the drug – a potent form of synthetic cannabis – was behind an explosion of ‘deaths, bullying and violence’ in prisons.

The Government adviser said it was relatively easy for inmates to smuggle liquid spice into prison because it can be sprayed on to regular tobacco or even paper. Dr Ryan revealed that urine tests carried out in ten prisons in north-west England found that around 8 per cent of prisoners tested positive for spice on arrival but 16 per cent were positive on release.

But levels of cannabis, cocaine and heroin all dropped dramatically.

Home Office figures show that two-thirds of all prison drugs seizures are for so-called ‘new psychoactive substances’, of which 99 per cent are spice. Speaking at the PHE conference in Warwick, Dr Ryan said: ‘Perhaps the most alarming statistic of all is that prisoners are twice as likely to use spice when they leave prisons as when they arrive.’

He said the wide use of the ‘very potent’ and highly addictive drug could explain a recent increase in violence, as powerful strains could leave up to 12 prisoners needing hospital treatment in a day.

These incidents can see other inmates confined to cells, causing them to become ‘volatile’.