Anyone who has worked in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation knows the drug “spice” is rampant. Many inmates put officer safety at risk abusing spice causing overdoses and erratic behavior. Now wasp spray is being shipped into CDCR institutions causing even more issues.
Spice is a laboratory-made chemical drug made to mimic the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Because spice is not controlled, the effects vary and so does concentration. The intoxicating effects of spice can be quite overpowering. Some inmates experience difficulty breathing, rapid heart rate, and shakes and sweats, all of which can lead to a severe panic attack. At higher doses, balance and coordination can be severely affected. Users can experience a loss of feeling and numbness in their limbs, nausea, collapse and unconsciousness. Inmates in CDCR have been abusing this drug for some time and most often get spice delivered in legal mail. CDCR officers do not really search legal mail delivered to inmates as there are many legal restrictions in doing so.
Spice is often soaked into legal paperwork and is mostly colorless and odorless. Trained officers can note a slight difference in the paper and how the paper reflects light. Because the chemical compounds of spice can very by manufacture, it can be difficult to detect.
CDCR uses NIK colorimetric testing and TrueNarc Raman spectroscopy testing to try and identify spice, but neither test works %100 of the time. Raman spectroscopy tends to be able to identify many more variations of spice than colorimetric testing, but not every CDCR prison has a TrueNarc device.
Recently CDCR has found many inmates overdosing on wasp spray. The Toughest Beat looked up a common spice supplier to inmates and found the company is heavily selling wasp spray to inmates. The company works with legal firms to ensure the wasp spray is shipped in legal mail and is even harder for custody staff to detect.
From the website aimed at inmates:
From this author’s recent experience, inmates are having more violent highs and overdosing more often on wasp spray. CDCR does not currently have an ability to test for wasp spray, although the TrueNarc devices can be updated to do so.
Be safe out there.
thetoughestbeat