'It was horrendous in 2017 but it hasn't gone away... Spice has haunted this city for years'

‘We have seen some upsetting sights – and it’s only getting worse’. After what appeared to be some respite, haunting pictures of people hunched over in front of Manchester’s most iconic sights are becoming familiar once more.

Among those living on the streets of the city centre, and those desperately trying to help them, fears are returning that vulnerable people are again turning to Spice in growing numbers. But some in Greater Manchester feel that, since the height of its devastating impacts in 2017, the scourge of Spice has ‘never gone away’.

Seven years ago saw a frightening time when when the Manchester Evening News first reported on a nightmare that was leaving vulnerable people frozen in 'zombie-like' states across the city centre.

READ MORE: Zoned out and frozen on a busy Manchester morning

The sight of people wasted on synthetic cannabinoids would become so familiar that national headlines would go on to dub the city 'Spicechester', home of the 'living dead'. Over just one weekend in that era, there were 58 drug-related emergency call-outs to the city centre.

The number of emergencies are no longer so extreme, according to experts. But Manchester Evening News readers say ‘Spice has haunted this city for years’, and it’s not going away any time soon. The readers have responded to a special report the M.E.N. has published today (June 10).

The special report shows a series of crushing images and accounts of people in the city centre, trapped in catatonic states, thought to be under the life-threatening influence of Spice. In the midst of the vitality of one of the busiest cities in the country, it’s clear Spice is back on the streets.

Reader Barbara Ann Mullins responded to the special report, saying: “We’re in a group of one of many who go out Fridays and feed the homeless. We have seen some upsetting sights. It is very sad. And it’s only getting worse…

“A lot of spice and other drugs on the street. Sad times.”

One reader commented ‘the reality is that Spice hasn’t gone away’, while another said ‘it's never gone away and it never will. Manchester centre is a scary place in the mornings when people are trying to get to work, especially around Piccadilly’.

Some readers reflected on the memories from seven years ago, saying Manchester city centre was like something out of a horror show. Fern Berry said: “It was horrendous seven years ago, people frozen in bizarre positions, completely unaware of their surroundings. No exaggeration, it was like a scene from the Walking Dead.”

“I used to work in Central Library. I saw this every day inside the library and in the streets on my way to work. Spice has haunted this city for years,” said reader Lynn Williams.

But scenes of struggling people bent double, slumped against doorways, barely conscious, hit people hard every time they see them – and it’s a tragically common sight almost a decade on.

Annoula Pavli said: “It never went anywhere anyway; it’s been plaguing the gardens for years now. Sad that people end up like this.”

While reader Kelly Roberts-Carroll said: “Not again. It was awful to see a few years back and it’s heartbreaking that this is happening again.”

Some fear that the scourge is only spreading outwards from the city centre. Social media user Dominic Scully-Tomlinson commented on the M.E.N.’s special report, saying: “Back? Can't recall a time [Spice] left. What actually happened was that it was pretty much contained, smack bang in the city centre and then, over time, it has spread outwards, through suburbs and villages, so it seemed that there was less of it flying around the city centre.

“Go anywhere you like where there happens to be a shopping mall, or precinct, and you'll find a Spice addict… It never left, it just spread outwards.”

The heartbreaking reality of Spice has put some people off from visiting the city centre. Mike Smith wrote to the M.E.N. to say that reunions with former colleagues in Manchester city centre are increasingly less popular. “Not because we are all dying off,” said Mike, “but because many are very wary of venturing into the city centre. Not only that, I have relatives living on the outskirts of the city centre in their 50s who also steer clear.”

Avoiding the city centre or not, there has been an outpouring of grief and care from M.E.N. readers from the vulnerable people living on the streets right now. “It breaks my heart this.. these people are somebody's children,” said one reader. “It scares the life out of me how very easily it is to slide down a slippery slope of self destruction.

“Drugs always end up taking lives one way or another. It’s such a sad world we live in.”

Social media user Julie Loveday added: “Someone's family. How anybody can laugh at people on drugs, I don't know. It is awful, seeing people like this.” While Paul Prescott directly commented on one of the shocking photos which has come to light in the special report: “That’s a person in a lot of pain. Someone struggling to cope with life.

“Potentially avoiding dealing with something the rest of us can't imagine. No one wakes one day and thinks ill be a drug addict it looks fun.”

Drugs rise and fall in popularity - depending on factors such as price and availability - among the communities of people who cluster in shop doorways, seek company in Piccadilly Gardens and stake out begging pitches across the busy city centre.

In 2021, the M.E.N broke the story of how the city was becoming a centre for the sale of 'pregabs', the black market version of prescription anxiety and epilepsy drug pregabalin. And this year, we revealed how experts were bracing themselves for a deadly new wave of synthetic opiates.

But this week, a number of rough sleepers, as well senior figures at homeless charities, told us Spice may be making a comeback - particularly after police shut down 'Counterfeit Street' on Bury New Road in Cheetham Hill, which had become a supply hub for many of the other favoured street drugs.

Yvonne Hope, CEO of the homeless charity Barnabus Manchester is one of the experts on street trends observing the problem, featured in the M.E.N.'s special report.

“So 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," she said. "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.

“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.

“I'm absolutely heartbroken. It was last year when we realised it was back because it is very hard to come off, it is highly addictive and there isn't any other way of coming off other than going cold turkey.

"It’s not like an opiate where you could use a substitute and then reduce, there's nothing you can do, it’s sheer willpower to come off that stuff.

“I have to say things changed a lot when we weren't dealing with Spice. We didn't have some of the same issues that we’d had prior with people that just couldn't get off, were just constantly on it and it was very difficult to engage with them to get them to work to get off the streets.

"So yeah, I'll be honest I was quite heartbroken it was back and it’s not surprising me that there are more and more people using it because it is so highly addictive.”

As for solutions, this is how reader Sophie Bell put it: “If only it was as simple as ‘just don’t take the drugs’.

“These are desperate people. Let’s focus on the reasons why people need to use these types of drugs in the first place.”

Read the full special report here... Zoned out and frozen on a busy Manchester morning