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.
