SPICE Abuse in Family Law Cases

Typically, 50 Times the Potency of Heroin, widely abused, yet most users go undetected. Why?

The toxicity of Spice compounds is not well understood, and their use has resulted in numerous fatalities. The potency of these chemicals outstrips that of most recreational drugs and Spice can be up to 800 times more potent than cannabis and significantly more potent than heroin and cocaine. An active dose of street heroin can be from around 50-150mg and a typical line of cocaine might contain 50-100mg, but most variants of spice are active at just 1mg or less, an amount barely visible to the naked eye, making accurate dosing impossible and fatalities an inevitable consequence.

Synthetic cannabinoids are cheap, readily available, and often lead to a loss of consciousness for the user. They cause significant stress on the heart, hypertension, hallucinations, vomiting, seizures, memory loss, somnolence, respiratory depression, acute anxiety, psychosis and death.

Synthetic cannabinoids are continually evolving, with new and emerging versions introduced regularly, with over 350 synthetic cannabinoids formed in the past 15 years. Surprisingly, the majority of those created just 5 years ago are rarely, if ever seen today, and this constantly changing landscape represents a significant challenge to Toxicology laboratories.

Spice is also one of the most difficult substances to detect in the field of drug testing, generally because of the very small amounts needed to produce a ‘high’ also because many Spice compounds are not readily incorporated into hair. Consequently, the levels of Spice found in the hair of many users is well below the detection limits of most laboratories testing for Spice. Furthermore, compared to drugs like cannabis, cocaine and heroin, laboratories receive relatively few instructions to test for Spice and on only one occasion in the past 10 years have FTS been instructed to test for a specific Spice compound. There are over 40 synthetic cannabinoids actively used presently, which are constantly changing. Therefore, it is unrealistic for Local Authorities, City Councils and Private Solicitors to keep pace with what they need to instruct for.

Data accumulated over the past 5 years by FTS (Forensic Testing Service) has shown that most laboratories testing for Spice are testing for compounds that have not been used in the UK for several years. Furthermore, in addition to testing for the wrong compounds, this data shows that Laboratories’ testing for these compounds would not detect most Spice users because the levels found in users are regularly below the detection limits of the test methods used.

This presents a considerable risk in the field of child protection because use of these compounds is going undetected and therefore parents who use Spice are significantly increasing the risk profile for the child.

It is also a concern that most of the public funding being used to test for Spice is being wasted and instead of assisting the courts, is only serving to mislead the courts. When the courts are presented with reports providing ‘Negative’ or ‘Not Detected’ results for Spice, not unreasonably, it is assumed that Spice doesn’t present a risk to the child, when this couldn’t be further from the truth in many cases.

FTS work with various partners including the Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester Metropolitan Police on a Drug Testing and Knowledge Exchange project called MANDRAKE.

This is a licenced scientific resource, based at Manchester Metropolitan University, working in partnership with key stakeholders to facilitate rapid, robust, and cost-effective chemical analysis for both harm-reduction and intelligence sharing. This project involves the testing and research on emergent and new drug trends closely monitoring substances that are actively used on the ‘street’ and links into other similar initiatives around the country.

FTS has a programme of continual development to address this challenge and are the only laboratory working in this sector that can offer reliable detection of these compounds as they appear on the street. They are the only laboratory that have the capability to detect many of the most abused Spice compounds and crucially, their associated metabolites for confirmation. Furthermore, FTS are one of the few laboratories that have the testing methods with the extreme sensitivity required to find the very low levels often seen in the hair of many users.

Instructing the FTS Spice panel ensures that currently abused synthetic cannabinoids will be detected, and use can be differentiated from passive exposure, ensuring Spice misuse is not missed and children are not exposed to unnecessary risk. This also prevents the waste of public funding that is presently spent on testing for Spice compounds that have not been used for several years or get reported as ‘Not Detected’ because they are below most laboratories’ detection limits.

If you would like further information on Spice compounds, please contact the FTS Customer Support Team on 01924 480272.