The use of new psychoactive substances [NPS] in prisons has been recognised as an increasing problem for several years. Successive Chief Inspectors of Prisons and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman in the UK have drawn attention to the impact on prisons, prison staff and prisoners themselves from the use of NPS.

It is clear from seizure data [of drugs within prisons and of drugs being intercepted coming into prisons] and feedback from both staff and prisoners that synthetic cannabinoids [SC] are, by some distance, the single most used form of NPS in prisons. An analysis of 400 seizures from 20 UK prisons revealed that 67% of seized samples were NPS—of these 99% were SC..........