The drug detective

Potent and unpredictable, spice is one of the most dangerous drugs on the streets. Effects range from zombie-like paralysis to violent outbursts and life-threatening seizures, and in prisons, the spice outbreak has become an epidemic.

Associated with nearly half of the non-natural deaths behind bars, the drug is soaked onto paper or clothing and smuggled into cells where officers have described people collapsing, convulsing and even self-harming under its influence.

Stopping the spread of this drug is critical but so far has proven nearly impossible. Now, schools are on high alert after a University of Bath study revealed one in six confiscated vapes were spiked with the synthetic drug.

The researcher who uncovered this shocking statistic is Professor Chris Pudney, who’s developed the world’s first on-the-spot test for spice. Pass any material over the portable, battery-powered device, and a red light will alert its presence.

The technology was designed to stem the flow of drugs into prisons, where it’s proven to be highly effective. However, when stories surfaced of schoolchildren collapsing and ending up in intensive care, Chris set out to investigate.

“We took the technology we developed for prisons and adapted it,” he says, showing us a small black box that contains pumps and heavy-duty air filtration to extract vapour for examination. “The police invited us to test confiscated vapes from a school and we found that 25% had spice in them. A prison drug. No one thought that would be what we would find. It was shocking.”

From there, the investigation expanded until 596 vapes from 38 schools were tested. “One out of six samples seized in schools contained spice,” says Chris. “So now there’s a small number of places where you find this really risky synthetic drug in society: prisons, among homeless communities and secondary schools. Isn’t that crazy?”

Professor Chris Pudney holding a pipette in the lab

“One out of six vapes in schools contained spice”

The deadly cost of cheap highs

So how does spice get from prisons to playgrounds? The link is vulnerable people and the allure of cheap, easily accessible drugs. “School children almost certainly think they’re buying vapes containing THC, which is the active component of cannabis,” he explains. “They’re easy to buy online for £30-£60, but young people can’t afford that, and spice is cheap compared to THC. They don’t realise what they’re getting is an incredibly addictive, high-risk drug.”

Since uncovering this wider issue, Chris and the team have given spice detectors to police so they can monitor usage in their regions. If a school is concerned, they can submit a sample and find out what’s really going on. He adds: “None of the schools or police forces are criminalising these young people – it’s all about supporting them and directing them to services that can help.”

Headteachers and police have emphasised the importance of educating young people about the risks and long-term consequences. Chris, a father to three young girls, agrees that having open conversations is crucial: “If you say to most kids that if someone’s offering you a cannabis vape, it’s going to be a prison drug that’s very addictive, then they have the chance to make a different choice.”

The University is now working with Bath’s local MP, the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care to raise the issue up the agenda for government ministers. “The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is going to ban disposable vapes,” he adds, “but it’s vanishingly rare that spice is found in disposable vapes in schools. So, if everyone switches to refillables, that matrix for drug consumption is in the hands of way more children. We need to be alive to the risk.”

Professor Chris Pudney holding the spice detection device

Close-up of the detection device and samples of cloth and paper

Protecting the most vulnerable

For those living in greater social deprivation, such as people in prison or homeless communities, cheap drugs can be a means to cope with their harsh realities. Chris has seen it first-hand. While developing the spice detector, he visited prisons and interviewed officers to understand the challenges.

“Prison is terrifying,” he recalls. “Residents can be locked up for 23 hours a day with somebody that might have a lot of problems in their life. A human being will do anything in those situations.” He continues: “When you talk to people in prison about why they use drugs like spice – which they don’t like using and don’t have the money to pay for – it’s because nothing’s going on in their life. It's not surprising that they turn to a drug that makes you feel like you're not in your body anymore and time is just passing.”

Spice comprises a range of lab-made chemicals that are constantly changing. As soon as legislation makes one molecule illegal, more are being developed to get around the law. Knowing this, Chris ensured the device tested for a class of molecule, rather than specifics. “We listened to what people on the frontline needed,” he explains. “They didn’t need to name the molecule – they wanted a straightforward output of what’s going on. We focused on detecting what comes into prisons and causes harm, so synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic opioids, like fentanyl.”

Seven prisons throughout the UK have benefitted from this device, which has enabled hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of drugs to be pulled out of prison and save lives. The team is also helping to bolster police forces’ forensic capability by testing samples for intelligence purposes. “At the moment, it’ll take three months for police to get a result of what a drug is,” he says, “but if someone’s died from an overdose, they need to know what it was because there may be a general risk to the community if, for example, the heroin is stronger at the moment. On the same day, we can tell them what it is and how strong it is.”

Bath is working to expand this initiative to other institutions. “Universities have access to the best technology, so why don’t we use it?” he reasons. Several other universities have since agreed to support their local force and the data is now feeding into a national drug early warning system.

“We listened to what people on the frontline needed”

The big issue

It’s only taken five years from having the initial idea to creating real-world impact. It was thanks to a conversation with his wife, a psychiatrist in a hospital, about the difficulty of diagnosing, testing and therefore treating patients who had taken spice. As a biochemist, Chris realised the structure of spice was similar to chemical structures in protein biochemistry. As soon as he got back into the lab, he set to work.

“We were quickly able to develop the science that would let us test for synthetic drugs through to making prototype devices, collaborating with colleagues across the University, from engineering and computer science to psychology and social science,” he says. “Now we have developed different technologies that serve different needs, all built in my lab, and distributed them around the world. It’s a lifetime’s worth of work in a very short space of time.”

Buoyed by the impact so far, Chris has ambitions to go even further. His goal is to provide a daily drug-checking service where anyone can submit a small sample and find out its strength. At the same time, they could be matched with support services to help lift them out of addiction and homelessness. He adds: “It’s never been done before, at least in the UK, where every day, anyone can have their drugs tested, and we can give them information about the strength because the technology we’ve developed hasn’t existed until now. It could be a game-changer.”

It’s early days but like the spice and vape detection devices, Chris says it’s all about serving the most vulnerable people. As he points out, there’s drug use in every level of society, but the harm is much worse for disadvantaged and deprived communities who lack support networks and access to medical care.

“Dependent users of drugs like heroin or spice have such severe withdrawal that they’ll do anything to make it stop,” he says. “That puts them at a great deal of risk because they’ll take anything they’ve got in front of them. But if we can test it and say, well, this is five times stronger than average, then they’ve got a chance to take less or in a safer way and avoid an overdose.”

He continues: “It's going to be a journey, but we’ve already come so far in such a small amount of time I feel confident that we can do it. Being able to take a basic idea and see it changing people’s lives feels great knowing we’re doing the right thing.”