Awash with Spice... so how DID our jails turn into drug dens?
22 inmates at single prison taken ill in one weekend
SOARING numbers of prisoners are taking the powerful ‘zombie drug’ Spice, Scotland’s jails watchdog has warned.
In one weekend, 22 prisoners received emergency medical treatment after smoking the hallucinogen.
In another incident, three prisoners suffered severe breathing problems after taking an unknown substance, a report by David Strang, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, has revealed.
The rise in the use of Spice, a banned synthetic drug, at HMP Low Moss in particular has prompted calls for prison bosses to take firmer control of the situation.
Mr Strang warned of a ‘significant additional pressure on Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and NHS staff’ as a result of the use of so-called ‘legal highs’, or new psychoactive substances (NPS).
Spice is a synthetic cannabis which leaves users in a zombielike stupor and is proving a growing menace in British jails.
It is a mixture of herbs and man-made chemicals which can cause hallucinations and severe psychotic episodes.
The drug can make users aggressive and paranoid or leave them slumped and unable to move.
The report on Low Moss, in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, was a follow-up to an inspection in May and June of last year. The second visit was in January.
In the latest report, Mr Strang says: ‘During one recent weekend, 22 individuals were assessed by medical and prison staff as displaying behaviour that was uncharacteristic or concerning. On assessment they were judged to have been under the influence of an unknown substance.
‘During another weekend, healthcare staff attended three prisoners who were assessed as being in respiratory arrest.
‘Staff reported that the majority of these incidents occurred at the weekend, when a far smaller number of prison and healthcare staff are on duty. This places a significant additional pressure on SPS and NHS staff alike.
‘SPS management, at a national level, must undertake to assess and evaluate the impact that the apparent significant increase in those within their care being assessed as being under the influence is having on those working, residing and visiting prisons.’
Last year, Mr Strang warned of the growing use of NPS at the maximum-security HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire.
Staff and inmates at the jail, home to some of Scotland’s most notorious killers, had raised safety fears amid a rise in the use of the substances.
Mr Strang said there were concerns about the unpredictable effects the drugs were having on prisoners, which was making it difficult for staff to supervise dangerous inmates.
Mr Strang revealed earlier this year that Spice was being smuggled into a Scottish prison through the post, with inmates receiving letters that had been soaked in liquid forms of NPS.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said the rise in Spicerelated incidents showed prisons were not the safe and secure places they were meant to be.
He said: ‘Prison has to provide criminals with a chance to rehabilitate, not continue harmful and addictive behaviour. The Scottish Prison Service works hard in challenging circumstances to stop these illegal substances entering prisons, but more must be done to give criminals the chance and space to build positive habits.’
Last December, 15 people were arrested as part of an inquiry into legal highs – including Spice – being smuggled into HMP Addiewell in West Lothian.
Last August, three guards at the jail were taken to hospital after breathing in second-hand smoke from an inmate using Spice in his cell.
An SPS spokesman said: ‘SPS is working with the Scottish Government and other partners to respond to the challenges that new psychoactive substances pose to Scottish prisons.
‘The SPS has been proactively managing NPS and its impact through awareness sessions and training to a wide range of staff and prisoners.’
‘Harmful and addictive’