“Got some good weed, bro.”
I’ve been on Bury New Road for less than five minutes when I’m approached by someone offering me drugs. I’m minding my own business, sauntering along in the early afternoon sun, when a lad in a black tracksuit accosts me out of nowhere.
I stop and tell him I’m after pregabalin - a prescription drug notoriously rife on the streets around Strangeways. Normally used to treat nerve damage, epilepsy and anxiety, it is also used among Manchester city centre's rough sleepers and drug addicts and has been linked to a growing number of deaths in recent years.
