Children use vapes spiked with ‘zombie drug’

Parents warned after e-cigarettes found to contain substance linked to dozens of prison deaths

SCHOOLCHILDREN are unwittingly using vapes spiked with spice, it has emerged.

Parents have been warned about a growing number of teenagers purchasing electronic cigarettes marketed as containing THC oil, the psychoactive component of cannabis.

In fact many are laced with spice, a dangerous synthetic cannabinoid known as the “zombie drug”, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in British prisons.

Multiple pupils have fallen ill in schools across the country in cases of confirmed or suspected spice vapes.

In the London borough of Lewisham, Forest Hill School told parents that vape liquid containing the class B drug “may also be stored in small plastic bottles that look like eye drops or decongestant sprays, making it harder to detect”. The warning added: “In a recent case where several pupils were hospitalised the substance ingested was thought to be THC, the active component of cannabis.”

The substance later tested positive for spice and “in this case the students became unwell and several required hospital treatment, with one pupil admitted in a critical condition”.

Police intelligence suggests that blue and green vape juice could be THC, while red and orange is likely to be spice, the school said, with social media sites being used to sell it to teenagers.

In another school in the south-east of the capital, public health chiefs told parents that “there have been multiple reporters of adulterated vapes” in Greenwich over the past week and testing of confiscated vapes in the area by the police and Bath University found 22 per cent contained spice.

The notice, seen by The Telegraph, warned that spice “carries a high risk of severe side-effects, including panic attacks, numbness and unconsciousness” and “has been linked to a number of deaths, particularly in the adult prison population”. It said that any young person known to have used it or showing signs should be taken to hospital or supervised until the effects pass, which can last several hours.

Spice has proven to be a deadly problem in prisons. In the five years to 2020, spice and black mamba – both synthetic cannabinoids – were implicated in almost half of the 129 “non-natural” deaths in prisons in England and Wales.

These were also the most commonly implicated substances in drug deaths in prisons between 2017 and 2019, when 37 prisoner death certificates mentioned them, far higher than deaths from heroin and other opiates.

Schools have seen multiple vaping hospitalisations in recent months. Five teenagers required hospital treatment after falling ill in Eltham, south-east London, in February from a vape spiked with spice.

Elsewhere, three teenagers were taken to hospital from Paignton Academy in Devon last week after using a vape – although it is not known if spice was involved – and schools in Lancashire have seen similar issues.