In News

Follow this topic

Bookmark

Record learning outcomes

Staff at a pharmacy in Stoke-on-Trent had to restrain a man who they believed had taken the psychoactive substance monkey dust after CCTV footage appeared to show him agitatedly pacing around the store and behaving aggressively.

Navid Kaleem, who owns Norfolk Street Pharmacy in Hanley, said the man was “to-ing and fro-ing” around the pharmacy before staff ushered patients away for their own safety and called the police.

Kaleem said the incident highlighted the growing problem of monkey dust addiction in Stoke and called for people using the drug to be given “proper support to come off it”.

“I've been a pharmacist now for 20 years and I only came across this drug in 2018," he told the BBC, insisting the drug was “destroying our city”.

“One minute he's singing, one minute he's doing something else. I was trying to show him compassion, trying to help him, but he was to-ing and fro-ing.”

According to UK Addiction Treatment Centres, Monkey dust is the street name for synthetic cathinones, a group of man-made stimulants that are related to cathinone, a naturally occurring substance found in the khat plant.

The most common form of Monkey dust is MDPV or methylenedioxypyrovalerone. The drug mimics the effects of cocaine, amphetamines or MDMA.

Its availability as a cheaper, legal alternative to cocaine and amphetamines in the UK increased sharply during the mid to late 2000s. Monkey dust is a class B drug but there have been concerns its use in Stoke has led to an epidemic.

"Without a doubt, it's getting worse,” Kaleem said. “Hanley has become a scary place because there's a lot of drug addicts around, people fearing for their safety.”