Drug addicts on Spice have been spotted frozen on the spot as the extreme effects of the narcotic take hold.
In one terrifying incident a woman was seen bent over as if picking up something from the street but motionless for several minutes. Finally she collapsed in a heap on the ground as members of the public rush to help in the centre of Manchester.
There are fears similar scenes spotted around the UK in recent weeks and months mean people are turning back to the highly-addictive psychoactive substance made illegal in the UK in May 2016. It can induce the notorious 'zombie' like catatonic state and for many years its use was rife among the UK’s homeless population.
A number of rough sleepers, as well as senior figures at homeless charities, say it may be making a comeback. James Black, 50, who begs outside Primark on Market Street, Manchester, told the Manchester Evening News he has been homeless on and off for 20 years. He said: “It’s that Spice. A lot of people are still smoking it, it’s ruining the town.
“People just get off their faces and are lying on the ground. It doesn’t affect me like it affects others. For me, it stops me from drinking because I was a raging alcoholic and was drinking three to four litres of vodka a day. But it’s like anything, it can be abused. I don’t think they (the police) will ever stop it. It’s not only homeless people smoking it.
“You would be surprised by the amount of people who stop me and say ‘Can you get me some Spice? Can you get me some gear?’ Just every day, normal people. It quietened down a bit when they stopped selling it on Bury New Road. People are going all over the country now to get it. They don’t even know what they’re smoking. It used to be tablets but that’s all gone now. So I think people might be going back to it.”
Another rough sleeper sat with a sleeping bag draped over his knees and with a takeaway coffee someone gave him perched next to him. The 32-year-old from Liverpool said he was in care as a youngster and then spent 11 years in and out of prison before coming to Manchester to stay with a friend, and ending up on the streets here.
He said: “It’s coming back. Definitely. 100 percent. It’s definitely back now. It was always going to happen. They clamp down on one drug and it just forces another one through. I’ve only had it a few times and I’m not a fan of it.
“It takes you away. It knocks you out and helps you sleep. You try spending a night on the streets, you would do anything to get a good night’s sleep. I know others are doing the same, as it's cheap and available. It’s not as strong as it used to be, but it’s still whacking people out. When you see them slumped in the doorways you know what they’ve taken.”
Expert Yvonne Hope, CEO of the homeless charity Barnabus Manchester, sad there had been a “break” from Spice - but it is back. She added: “We had a real, really nice long break from Spice and then it came back last year and it was the zombie Spice that we'd seen prior to the pandemic, which leaves people frozen.
"We've heard about people being assaulted when they have taken it. I think it's important to say it's not just people who are street homeless taking this. There are people coming into the city centre specifically to get their hands on it and take it. The police are obviously on that with all the work they’re doing in Piccadilly Gardens , around the drug dealers.
“We think over the pandemic people based in China couldn’t get their drugs over here. But I don’t know if there are people who are making stuff here now because it’s so prevalent. It's really out there, it’s fairly cheap. I'd say at the moment, most of the people we know are using crack rather than Spice, but crack, as you know, can have a very similar effect. You just don't know what people are taking."