Last night, Lancaster Uni put out a warning tweet to its students after five students were hospitalised after smoking the synthetic cannabis legal high known as Spice. This comes after Lincoln became the first city to ban legal highs, and an Irish girl died after taking a synthetic version of MDMA, calling into question whether the rest of the UK should be following suit.
‘We’ve got five students who have been taken to hospital with a suspicion that they had taken the drug,’ a spokesperson for the uni told The Guardian. ‘Of the five, we know that two of them are seriously ill.’
Spice is just one of the many growing number of imitation drugs that mimic the effects of an illegal drug, but can often have a more acute effect.
An ambulance was called to student halls in Lancaster between 6pm and 7pm last night, and an email sent round the campus reads: ‘It is extremely important if you have taken the drug to call 999 immediately and call for an ambulance. Please also check on anyone you think may have taken it.’
Yet another warning that synthetic, legal drugs are in no way safer than their illegal counterparts.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.