Legal high use is worsening in UK prisons

It has been claimed by prison inspectors, prisoners and those working with drug addicts that the use of legal highs in UK prisons is getting worse.

The BBC’s Newsbeat obtained access to statistics that revealed a sevenfold increase in the number of people who have sought assistance relating to legal highs, also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), despite the government’s claim of zero tolerance towards drugs in UK prisons.

The statistics, which come from a study carried out by Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt), show that 87 people asked for help in dealing with legal highs between April and September 2014, with this number increasing to 622 for the same period in 2015.

The chief executive of RAPt, Mike Trace, told Newsbeat: “Our frontline teams have seen an alarming surge in the use of new psychoactive substances in just the last year. Staff are reporting distressing levels of violence, both from the effects of these drugs but also the lucrative market exploited by gangs.”

Newsbeat also spoke to prisoners, who confirmed that the legal high known as Spice was everywhere in prisons. One convict, named only as Dave, said that Spice is known as ‘green crack’ in prisons and that it only takes one use to become addicted.

Nick Hardwick, chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales, claims that legal highs in prisons have caused an increase in violence carried out by gangs.