Our town is being overrun by hallucinating addicts who eat glass and jump off buildings thanks to terrifying new drug
A NAKED man runs through a job centre, swearing and hurling chairs in a hallucinogenic frenzy.
Terrified mums with young children cower in fear as the yob, trapped in a zombie-like state, flees from an imaginary threat before racing outside.
Scenes like this have become all too common in hard-up towns across Britain as the street drug known as monkey dust rips through communities.
Last week, it was revealed that Government ministers want to crack down on the terrifying hallucinogen, which is linked to a spate of violent crimes and has even made users eat glass or jump off buildings.
The synthetic drug — also known as cannibal or zombie dust in the US, where it’s been linked to face-eating attacks — only costs £2 a hit.
And the off-white powder can be snorted, swallowed or smoked, with the intense high lasting 12 hours, causing extreme aggression and senseless behaviour.
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In Stoke-on-Trent, residents have been left reeling by the spread of the deadly substance.
The recent scene in the North Staffordshire job centre shocked even those used to the sight of junkies, who have turned the area into the UK capital of a new and dangerous epidemic.
Mum-of-two Becky Taylor, 35, whose cousin was once a user, told The Sun of the incident: “It was terrifying.
“The man was going crazy, smashing things up and running naked through the place.
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“I was scared as I had young kids with me.”
Monkey dust can produce feelings of paranoia, invincibility and super-strength.
One cop said trying to handcuff an abuser was like “tackling the Incredible Hulk”.
Lives destroyed
It also makes users overheat, which is why many strip off.
Home Office ministers have asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to look at whether the Class B substance should be moved up to the more serious Class A.
That would add an extra two years in prison for possession, and the threat of life in jail for dealers.
Minister for Crime and Policing Chris Philp said: “These synthetic drugs ruin lives, families and neighbourhoods.
“They are made in labs and pumped into our communities.
“Our drug laws must keep pace with their evolution.”
Two years ago, Becky’s cousin Ashley Ford, 25, tried to burst into her home at 3am, but got the wrong house and broke in next door.
The woman and her adult son who lived there pushed him into a pantry, but they said naked Ford smashed the glass and attempted to come through the door “like Jack Nicholson in The Shining”.
He also trashed the house before he was arrested.
Ford was jailed for 21 months in June 2021 after he admitted unlawful wounding, affray and two counts of criminal damage.
Becky said: “He had also earlier run down the High Street naked.
“Monkey dust made him mad, doing crazy things.
“But he’s turned his life around now and got clean after going to prison.
“He now has a son and doesn’t touch it any more.”
Monkey dust — with the chemical name methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV for short — can cause euphoria similar to amphetamine use but may also lead to hallucinations.
Experts say the effects can occur at low doses, contributing to users becoming addicted.
Stoke-on-Trent South MP Jack Brereton is pleased the Government is taking action.
He said: “Many people’s lives have been completely destroyed as a result of taking this drug.
“There is no treatment for those who become addicted — and it is very addictive.”
There are no specific official statistics for the number of monkey dust-related deaths in the UK.
But latest data for “new psychoactive substances”, of which the drug is one, showed fatalities here rose by 88 per cent in a year, from 137 in 2020 to 258 in 2021.
The Potteries has seen a big rise in crime related to its use, with the Hanley area of the city one of the worst affected.
When The Sun visited, a wild-eyed woman in a top hat swayed in the road and gazed at the sky.
Another female was sticking her head in public rubbish bins, hunting for anything she could sell.
Retired builder Vasile Calarsu, 56, said: “It’s crazy here.
“I have seen four people collapsed in the middle of the street.
“A man set fire to bins in his gardens when he was mad on drugs and burnt the house down.
“These drugs send people mad.”
Vasile’s neighbour Jamie Woolley, 30, said users have climbed over a nearby fence and turned a car park into a drugs den.
The dad-of-two added: “You see them all the time, wandering round here out of it. We know to leave them alone.”
Getting worse
His partner Lauren Proctor, 24, said: “I was coming out of the shop last week and there was one smoking it out of a pipe.
“They’re always knocking on our door trying to sell stolen stuff.”
A string of criminals have been given prison sentences at Stoke Crown Court for violent offences committed while under the influence of the drug, while some locals have died.
In November Mary Stokes, 34, received a 32-month prison term after stabbing a cancer patient twice in the body.
And James Owens, 29, was sentenced to 26 months after a court heard he tried to “throw his daughter out an upstairs window”.
In March, Carl Bage, 45, died after falling from a wall while high on a cocktail of drugs including monkey dust.
And last July, Natasha Johnson, 43, suffered a fatal overdose after mixing it with methadone.
Staffordshire Police have a team of officers working to cut supplies in the area and recently seized monkey dust worth £100,000.
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But ex-Stoke City football manager Lou Macari, whose is trying to tackle homelessness in the area, said recently: “We have a huge problem with monkey dust in Stoke and I’ve seen things I never thought I would witness — people stripping naked because they are convinced there are snakes on the floor, paranoia and psychotic episodes.
“Things here are getting worse, not better.”