‘We’re going to see a death’ - stark warning as vapes spiked with Spice in England's schools
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An expert has warned young people could die this summer holiday because their vapes have been laced with Spice.
Professor Chris Pudney, a Professor of Applied Biochemistry at the University of Bath, has been testing vapes taken from young people across the country.
He warned it is now a “struggle” to find a school in England where vapes containing Spice were not present, claiming it was almost “endemic” and saying we needed to start “being honest about it”.
Some schools the Professor visited reported children collapsing, some with suspected Spice-induced cardiac arrests, after smoking vapes.
Other headteachers reported “children vomiting on themselves in assembly” and others being “completely out of it”.
Professor Pudney has sampled devices from 30 schools in England and found Spice present in vapes taken from 25 of those schools.
In total he has analysed 536 vapes since Easter this year and found 11% contained Spice and 1.5% had THC in them.
He told ITV News West Country: “I think what's really shocked us is that it's an enormous problem in schools.
“[Spice] is a drug we find almost exclusively in prisons in the UK where it's associated with nearly half of the non-natural deaths, so when we found that it's incredibly prevalent if not endemic in our schools that really shocked us.
“I would say you would struggle to find a school that doesn't have Spice vapes in it. All our sampling suggests this is something that affects every school from every background.
“It's something that isn't isolated to one particular region or one particular school; it literally is everywhere... It's so common I've stopped being shocked by it.”
Professor Pudney said that he is concerned some children are now reliant on the drug and as a result a young person could die during the school holidays, while others could experience nasty withdrawal symptoms while not at school.
Reflecting on the impact this could have during the summer holidays he said: “My worry, as we go into the summer, is that [...]children that have become addicted to Spice, when they go into the summer they won't be using around their friends or in school where there's help available.
“They might start using in their room or on their own and if they have a cardiac arrest on their own in the room they will just die.
“We are at that level where it's so pervasive now and the risk of that drug is so great that I'm concerned that we're going to see a death.
“We've certainly got some kids that are addicted and we just don't know what their withdrawal will look like over the summer if their supply is cut.”
He warned Spice is becoming increasingly common as it is much cheaper than other illicit substances and is easier to access.
Teachers across schools in the UK have warned that vapes containing illicit substances are starting to become a county lines style drug dealing operation.
County lines operations are when drug dealers in major cities establish networks for the supply and sale of drugs to users in towns and rural areas, using other people.
Professor Pudney added: “I think we're probably guilty of people wanting to brush it under the rug a little bit. Schools don't want to really be seen to have a drug problem.
“Councils don't want to be seen to have a drug problem so those I've talked to, people know it's there but they don't really want to talk about it.
“This drug is one we see predominantly in prisons and associated with organised crime we have to be really mindful to the risk of young children when they're encountering these really strong drugs, who they're getting them from and if that puts them in the sphere of folk who want to groom them to be involved in more serious drug dealing like county lines.”
Professor Pudney said it is important that work is done to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of Spice and the risk associated with taking it.
According to his research, in most cases vapes containing Spice were refillable vapes and very rarely the single-use branded vapes.
He thinks children are coming into possession of Spice vapes as they instead think they’re smoking THC - the element in cannabis which produces the ‘high’ - and are purchasing the devices as ‘cannabis’ vapes.
But THC has a very low risk profile and very rarely results in fatal overdoses. Spice on the other hand is incredibly potent and can cause sinister side effects.
Addressing parents he said: “If you suspect your kids are vaping something that gives some effect to them it's very unlikely to be THC or cannabis, which is a very low risk drug.
“It's vastly more likely to be Spice… if you're seeing [your child] behave strangely you need to have an open conversation with them about the risk.”
Professor Pudney has now developed a testing machine that can ascertain whether Spice or THC is present in vapes in a matter of seconds.
He has been taking the kits into schools to help give headteachers a sense of the problem and has also been encouraging police forces to use the device to help track the issue.
He said: “We've been trying to give these away to as many police forces to support their activities so over the summer that's what our effort is, to try to get as many of these out of the lab as possible to support them before the new school year starts.”
Devon and Cornwall Police is one of the forces testing the rollout of Professor Pudney's new kit.
Inspector Sarah Ronayne, Partnerships Inspector for Plymouth, told ITV News: "We have had reports in our area from public health and schools about young people becoming adversely affected from smoking vapes.
"When you smoke vapes they could be laced with THC or Spice which can have serious health implications.
"At the moment it's too early to tell [how widespread this is]. We have been engaging with all the secondary schools in our city to try and educate our young people about the dangers that are associated with smoking vapes.
"With the equipment from Professor Pudney we will now be able to test and hopefully be able to gain a more accurate picture of the effects and impacts."
A government spokesperson said: “We are banning vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children, including restricting their packaging, flavours and display.
“In addition, last year the government launched an illicit vapes enforcement squad to crack down on illegal sellers and undertake testing of products”.
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