Fears over new crystal form of ‘zombie’ drug spice that is TWENTY times more potent – and has already put ten in hospital
A new crystal form of Spice which has left ten people needing hospital is twenty times more potent than the strain being widely smoked on the streets.
Dr Oliver Sutcliffe, the academic who tested samples of the substance, said it was 100 per cent pure and therefore ‘significantly more dangerous’ than the already frightening strains seen previously.
Nine men and one woman were taken to Royal Oldham hospital last weekend after taking what they thought was MDMA.
In fact it was a crystaline strain of synthetic cannabinoids, similar to the type widely smoked in Manchester’s homeless community.
Dr Sutcliffe said staff at his lab at Manchester Metropolitan University had not seen any substance of this type since before legal highs were banned last year, describing its emergence as "surprising".
Effectively what people had taken was the ‘raw material’ used in making the sort of Spice smoked on the streets, he added.
That is made from a chemical solution sprayed onto dried plant material, but this batch, which was being sold in Oldham, was a highly concentrated form of those chemicals taken orally.
Dr Sutcliffe said: "In essence the crystal is a mixture of two compounds, which are related structurally to the original AMB Fubinaca Spice that kicked all this off by putting people in catatonic states.".
“In terms of potency, pretty much the only compound in the sample was synthetic cannabinoids, so it was 100pc cannabinoid.
“So in terms of how much is present in a joint and how much is potentially present in the crystals, you’re looking at 20 times the dose.”
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Police issued an urgent warning after last weekend’s incident, describing the development as ‘extremely worrying’ and urging people to ‘seriously consider’ what they are doing before taking what they think is MDMA.
Police have not released pictures of the Spice, but Dr Sutcliffe said it was a mixture of different sized crystals, many of them translucent.
He said it is considerably more dangerous than the type of Spice already being smoked, the zombie-like effects of which made headlines earlier this year.
The big risk was not necessarily from a new trend in deliberate crystal Spice use, Dr Sutcliffe, but from people buying the drug thinking that it is something else.
He said: “What’s more worrying is that people are potentially touting it as one product when it’s not.
“And while existing spice strains are already dangerous, this one is significantly more so.”
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