What’s Really in That Vape? Uncovering a Hidden Drug Trend in UK Schools

We sampled seized vapes from schools across England. We found an extremely high occurrence of a synthetic drug called spice in these vapes. Our work with schools suggests that young people are being sold 'cannabis' vapes, but actually contain a potent drug primarily found in prison. I will discuss our findings and more recent data that suggests we should be mindful of this trend and how it can develop.

We looked at the different chemistry and molecules produced when spice was smoked or vaped. Different molecules are produced and the toxicity of these is unknown. Part of our research involved interviews with prisoners to find out how drugs were used in UK jails and this was used to help us design experiments in the lab.