Ushma MistryBBC Midlands Investigations
It is a sunny spring afternoon in Warwickshire and I’m parked up in a nondescript hatchback with my cameraman, poised to meet a drug dealer.
He has agreed to sell what he claims to be THC vape liquids to a schoolgirl – an illegal substance which is the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
However, we suspect it actually contains spice, a more potent drug that is highly addictive and can cause serious side effects.
And unbeknown to him, the “schoolgirl” is an undercover BBC reporter who has been messaging him on Snapchat.
On Friday we published an article exposing these drug dealers who are selling vape liquid laced with spice to unwitting teenagers through adverts posted on the social media site.
It came after we went undercover to catch the dealers in the act.
A year ago I saw social media posts from two mums worried about their teenage daughters, who started vaping what they thought was THC when they were just 13.
Over the course of a few months, they told me how the girls had become addicted to what they now suspect was spice, and would come home so high they would collapse.
One said she feared she would find her child dead in their bed, while her daughter said withdrawal symptoms from the drug made her feel like she was “dying”.
Both mums want the people responsible to stop. They told us that, despite reaching out to police a year ago, the dealers were still on the streets.
Using the mums’ information, we messaged a seller their daughters bought from.
The Snapchat account he’s using explains at the top: “new account, old one banned”.
Its avatar is a cartoon man standing in front of a wall of dollar bills. I ask for a menu and he sends a brightly-coloured poster with a price list for THC, the chemical compound in cannabis which gets you high.
The price list shows he’s charging £10 for a bottle of “special mixed flavour”, or £20 for “pure concentrated THC”. He delivers on afternoons and evenings across Birmingham and Warwickshire.
It’s starting to feel like we’re ordering a pizza.
No names or personal information are exchanged but the dealer has a few questions about how we got his information, “So I know you’re not police”.
We tell him a friend at school recommended him and place an order for three special-mix bottles and one pure concentrated THC. We agree a meet point and ready our team.
We’re waiting on a housing estate in a leafy suburb where most of the houses have perfectly-maintained front lawns and expensive cars on the drives.
The dealer has agreed to meet us near a busy children’s playground – which isn’t an issue for him.
My colleague is posing as the schoolgirl who placed the vape juice order. She looks like an ordinary teenager, in joggers, worn trainers and a big puffer jacket, clutching her mobile phone and vape.
She’s the youngest member of our team and, though the nerves have set in, we all feel confident to carry on.
If at any point she feels unsafe, the whole operation will be pulled. We have to be prepared for the unexpected.
We’re in constant communication as she moves to the meeting point, the dealer messaging her his ETA on Snapchat.
Soon, he’s five minutes away and things are tense.
After what feels like a lifetime, a white SUV appears and the adrenaline begins to rush.
There are three of them in the car, which does a U-turn right in front of ours – but we manage to hide our camera.
The team watch as our colleague walks towards the car, our cameras rolling.
After a quick hello, she keeps them talking as she hands over cash, asking about the flavours and whether they would sell in bulk for a party.
The car is slowly rolling forward throughout.
Less than 30 seconds later, she returns clutching four bottles – one turquoise blue, the other three containing clear liquid in 10ml vials. The deal is done.
Independent tests show the bottles we bought contain spice.
I showed the mums and girls our footage a few days later.
One told me she felt sick. Both are angry the dealers are still active and children like theirs are still buying from them.
And one of the girls recognised the man taking the cash and handing over the drugs, because she’d bought from him before.
We contacted the dealer again last week, using his Snapchat accounts, to see what he had to say. We were blocked and haven’t had a reply.
Snapchat has since told us using the platform to buy or sell vapes and illegal drugs is strictly against its rules and that it removed more than more than 2.4 million drug-related posts and disabled 516,000 related accounts last year.
“We use technologies to proactively find and shut down dealers’ accounts, block search results for a wide range of drug-related terms and support law enforcement efforts,” a spokesperson added.
Warwickshire Police confirmed it had received reports about the spice-laced vapes being sold to young people and said it was working with partners to gather evidence.
Both teenage girls have told us they are no longer vaping illegal drugs.
One mum, Dawn, said: “This stuff’s dangerous… for adults and it’s highly dangerous for children.
“Adults who are making money out of this are absolute scum. They should be locked up with the key thrown away.”
- Details of information and support with addiction are available at BBC Action Line.
