‘It can make you psychotic or give you a cardiac arrest’: why are so many children vaping the ‘prison drug’ spice?

Parents and teachers worry about the number of kids who vape cannabis. But many of them are using something far more dangerous – without even realising it

I bumped into an old acquaintance the other day. Updating me on his children’s ages, he said, with an eyeroll of resignation: “My daughter’s 15 now; just found a cannabis vape in her room.” It’s an increasingly common and concerning situation for parents – with no way of telling if a vape does in fact contain weed (which comes with its own risks, just like vaping tobacco) or something much worse.

Instead of the natural cannabinoids THC or CBD, these vapes can contain a much cheaper substitute: the “prison drug” spice. Last year scientists from the University of Bath analysed 1,923 vapes that had been confiscated from children in 114 schools in England, and found that 13% contained spice. In London and Lancashire it was 25%. And this is among vapes of all kinds, nicotine included, not just those that purported to contain cannabis. As for vapes labelled as containing THC, CBD or cannabis, when the drug-testing service Wedinos (part of Public Health Wales) examined 297 samples received in the year up to March 2025, it found that 39% contained spice.