Synthetic Cannabinoids Use among Inmates in an English Prison

The use of synthetic cannabinoids (SC) is major public-health problem in UK prisons, and between 2015 – 2022, SCs were implicated in around half of all non-natural deaths among UK prisoners. Although the global use of SCs is highly concentrated within this population, it remains an underresearched area, and little is known about the features of SC use among this group. We recruited a purposive sample of 120 prisoners currently incarcerated in an English adult male prison to complete a questionnaire during a 1 to 1 confidential interview. Psychological distress was measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18), and participants were asked questions about their sociodemographic and custodial characteristics and their use of drugs inside and outside of prison. Those that reported using SC inside prison were asked additional questions related to their features of use (including past 4-week frequency and administration method) and reasons for use. A total of 55 (45%) participants reported ever use of SC in prison, and this group reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress than those never using SC in prison ((t(118) = 3.28, p = .004, CI: 95% CI: 3.73, 14.25). The majority of SC users (n=25) had used SC in the last week and reported vaping infused paper as the most common administration method (72%). The reasons for use most commonly endorsed by participants were to deal with boredom (90%), to make the prison sentence pass faster (88%), to cope with stress (82%) and to help sleep (76%). The use of SCs is highly prevalent among UK prisoners and its use is associated with higher levels of psychological distress. The majority of SC use occurs via the vaporisation of infused paper, and the health effects of this are entirely unknown. Use appears to be mostly driven by coping motives, such as to help sleep or deal with stress or boredom, and this should be used to inform interventions aiming to reduce SC use within prison populations.