Urgent action needed to curb rise in prison deaths linked to spice, say UK researchers

Synthetic cannabinoids involved in nearly half of male prisoner deaths analysed in England and Wales

Researchers have called for urgent action to tackle the crisis in the Prison Service after data showed a rise in deaths among male prisoners linked to synthetic cannabinoids.

The team at Middlesex University's Drug and Alcohol Research Centre analysed official investigation reports on the non-natural" deaths of 129 prisoners in England and Wales between 2015 and 2020. Synthetic cannabinoids, known as spice" and black mamba", were implicated in 48% - or nearly half - of the deaths, all but eight of which were in men.