And finally… spiced up

All 25 prisons in the US state of Pennsylvania were put on lockdown recently after prison staff fell ill from exposure to a mysterious drug.

Nearly 30 employees from ten different facilities have reported the symptoms of nausea, dizziness, tingling and a scratchy throat.

Toxicology reports suggest that they had somehow consumed a synthetic cannabinoid called “spice”, Vice News reports.

Officials have suggested that staff may have handled letters to prisoners which were soaked in a liquid version of the drug.

However, Mark Neavyn, director of the fellowship in medical toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, said: “Unless the law enforcement officer was sucking on the piece of paper, I highly doubt it.”

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