Legal highs a factor in prison deaths, says ombudsman
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Version 0 of 1. Legal highs are suspected to have been a factor in 19 self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales over the past two and a half years, an official investigation has found. Nigel Newcomen, the prisons and probation ombudsman, says legal highs – officially known as new psychoactive substances – are a source of increasing concern inside the prison system, fuelling problems of debt, violence and intimidation behind bars. He discloses that in at least one case a prisoner who died had been given spiked cigarettes by other inmates, who wanted to test new batches of legal highs before taking them themselves. Related: Number of legal highs rockets as new psychoactive substances go global The ombudsman’s investigation report says that while it was very difficult to establish a direct causal link in prison suicides, his inquiry showed that legal highs were a relevant factor in at least 19 self-inflicted deaths between April 2012 and September 2014. Newcomen says that the lack of a robust test for legal highs means it is possible that more prisoners who took their own lives were using them before their deaths. Legal highs have grown sharply in popularity in recent years. They are synthetic chemical compounds often manufactured in the laboratories of south-east Asia and imitate the effects of more traditional illicit drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy. A Home Office bill currently going through parliament is expected to lead to a blanket ban on legal highs being introduced in England and Wales from next April. The results of the ombudsman’s investigation published on Tuesday focus on synthetic cannabinoids, including Black Mamba and Spice. They are generally odourless and are sold in hundreds of variations in chemical structure making their use “difficult to detect and to manage”. Newcomen says the use of these untested substances had led to examples of “erratic, violent and out-of-character” behaviour by some prisoners, while others were left incoherent and unable to stand up properly. There have been reports of prisoners using legal highs needing emergency hospital treatment for heart problems, high blood pressure and psychosis. Related: Theresa May's legal highs ban is unenforceable, say government advisers “Our investigations found that some prisoners showed similar symptoms, including raised pulse rates, sweating and vomiting. There were also cases where the prisoner collapsed, or experienced something like a psychotic episode. Mr A became very unwell at work after smoking a new psychoactive substance. He was physically sick and behaving very strangely, and then died of a heart attack later that day,” reports the ombudsman. His report says that the use of legal highs appeared to be a possible trigger for self-harming by some prisoners, although it was impossible to establish a direct causal link. Many of the 19 who died were taking other drugs, including prescribed medication or other illegal substances. The ombudsman in particular cites the case of a “bubbly” and “fun-loving” woman who died after making a deep cut in her arm. Fellow inmates said she had been using legal highs and cocaine. A clinical review of her death concluded that the drugs may have triggered a psychotic episode in someone for whom such actions were entirely out of character. “I hope that by sharing the lessons from the few deaths where we know that use of such drugs was a factor, this will further support efforts in prison to address the supply of these substances, respond better to the threats they pose and help educate prisoners so as to reduce demand,” said the ombudsman. The National Offender Management Service has introduced a new communications strategy warning of the dangers of legal highs, targeted at prisoners, staff and visitors. More drug dogs have been trained to detect legal highs and stronger penalties introduced for those inmates found to be using them. |