A teenager was taken to hospital after falling ill from a suspected spice intake while attending the Southern Regional College in Armagh.
Armagh I understands the young male, who is not a student of the college, required urgent medical attention on Friday, April 30, in yet another worrying incident involving the mind-altering drug.
A spokesperson for the SRC, when contacted by Armagh I about the incident, said: “The ambulance service was brought to the Campus to provide support to a young person that was not a student of the College, but from a local school using our facilities.”
It follows a number of incidents at the Portadown campus of Craigavon Senior High School recently, however, one senior source at an Armagh city-based school said spice is “obviously a wider problem that is not just an isolated incident within a certain school”.
“The young lad from another school was taken away in an ambulance after taking spice. The pupil brought it in with him and used it,” the source said.
“Schools aren’t buying it and selling it; this is happening in the community – it’s not reflective of the school, it’s the fact pupils can bring anything they want into school; bags aren’t checked but maybe that’s the culture we’re going to create for ourselves, that we do have to start that – it’s a very scary thought.
“It’s only a matter of time before it comes into more schools and that’s the bigger issue. We as schools need to be coming together across County Armagh and working with police and tackling the issue of supply – where are these kids getting the drugs from? It’s only a matter of time; it’s not a good culture to start locally and I think lockdown hasn’t helped at all.”
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