'Legal highs' to blame for prison trouble, says sister of Telford drug death man

Charlotte Delo's brother Jamie Penn, a trainee bricklayer from Hadley, Telford, died in 2014 after a violent reaction to the then legal drug 4,4-DMAR.

She believes the substances will have played a role in the recent riots at prisons in Birmingham and Kent.

Mrs Delo, who has worked in prisons highlighting the dangers of the drugs, said she has had received countless reports of how commonplace the drugs are in Britain's prisons.

It was recently reported that West Midlands Ambulance Service were called to prisons in the region more than 1,400 times over the past two years.

HMP Oakwood, near Wolverhampton, was the most frequently visited prison, with the number of call-outs rising from 216 in 2015 to 279 in 2016. Figures were not available for Stoke Heath Prison, near Market Drayton.

Mrs Delo said: "No doubt, many of these calls will be down to Mamba and Spice attacks.

"I said this would happen at the start but authorities would not listen to me."

Black Mamba and Spice were two of the leading brands of "legal highs" before the blanket ban was introduced in May this year.

Mrs Delo added: "I said when my brother died that these so called legal-highs would take over.

"They never listened to me, now look what terrible things are happening in the prisons.

"It's out of control, forces need to come into place, they really do."

"I feel sorry for the staff in the prisons, there's not a lot they can do.

"I have heard about drones bringing it in and all sorts.

"The prisoners obviously take them to block things out, but they are so dangerous."

She formed a campaign group called New Psychoactive Substance Awareness, and said people from all over the UK and abroad contact her on a regular basis.

"They all say how easy this stuff is to get hold of in prison, that it is easier than getting hold of tobacco," she said.

Mrs Delo has been campaigning against the dangers of psychoactive substances since the death of Mr Penn in May, 2014.

Mr Penn, a 29-year-old trainee bricklayer had bought the then-legal drug 4,4-DMAR – a white powder designed to resemble cocaine – from a woman in Shrewsbury.

But it reacted with another drug he had taken the previous day, causing him to become violently ill and die an agonising death.

She campaigned for new laws to prevent the sale of the drugs, and a blanket ban finally came into force this year.

Since the new law came into force, almost 500 people have been arrested across the UK, with four being sent to prison. In the West Mercia force area, one man in Worcester was cautioned in relation to the new law, but no charges have yet been brought under the Act.

Figures also reveal that 332 shops have stopped selling new psychoactive substances, and 31 have closed down altogether since the drugs were outlawed six months ago.