Spice in kids' vapes: why children are unknowingly inhaling a drug once known for prison use

Imagine a parent finding a vape in their child's room. The first instinct is often relief of a kind: 'At least it's cannabis, not something worse.' But according to the Guardian, that assumption is increasingly wrong — because many vapes confiscated from children don't contain cannabis at all. They contain something far more dangerous: the synthetic cannabinoid known as spice.

Last year, scientists at the University of Bath analyzed 1,923 vapes confiscated from children across 114 schools. According to the Guardian, a significant share of those devices contained not the natural cannabinoids THC or CBD, but synthetic cannabinoids — a much cheaper substitute.

Spice is a class of synthetic cannabinoids once best known for widespread use in UK prisons. It is chemically distinct from natural cannabis and binds far more powerfully to the body's receptors, which can produce unpredictable and severe effects. Because it can resemble cannabis in smell and appearance, users sometimes consume it without realizing what they're actually taking.

The effects can differ dramatically from natural cannabis. Experts say spice can trigger psychotic episodes, severe anxiety, and in some cases cardiac arrest. A user experiencing both intense hallucinations and a dangerously elevated heart rate simultaneously is a combination rarely seen with natural cannabis use.

The root of the problem is price. Synthetic cannabinoids are far cheaper to produce than natural cannabis, which makes them attractive to suppliers selling to young people in particular. Spice added to a vape cartridge can be marketed to buyers as cannabis, even though its price point and supply chain are entirely different.

That's particularly troubling for families, because parents who believe their child is 'just' using cannabis may underestimate the actual risk. According to the Guardian, experts stress that families who find a vape often have no way of knowing what's actually inside it — and that uncertainty itself should be treated as a warning sign.

Schools are increasingly grappling with the issue too. Teachers report sudden confusion, agitation, or fainting episodes in classrooms — symptoms rarely associated with conventional cannabis use. Some schools now send confiscated vapes for laboratory analysis.

Experts offer several concrete recommendations for families and educators: assume the contents of any confiscated vape are unknown, talk to children openly and without judgment, and push for school policies to be updated to explicitly cover synthetic cannabinoids. Early intervention plays a critical role in preventing serious health consequences.

The scale of the problem reflects a broader trend in youth vaping. Vapes are cheap, easy to conceal, and largely odorless — qualities that also make verifying their contents that much harder, creating conditions for substances like spice to spread undetected.

Ultimately, experts say the message is clear: a parent or teacher who finds a vape should never assume what's inside it. Even if a device is labeled as THC or CBD, the only reliable way to determine its actual contents is laboratory testing — and that uncertainty is one of the most dangerous aspects of today's youth vaping crisis.