'Mamba must be banned': Liam from BBC 3 Wolverhampton drugs documentary
"You can smell the mamba from here," says Liam, glancing over at a group of his friends as we sit outside a coffee shop near Wolverhampton bus station.
The central figure in BBC 3's controversial documentary Wolverhampton: Getting Off Mamba tells me he has been clean for the last three months as he battles to stay off the substance that he says almost killed him.
Many among his circle of pals, who spend most days congregating around various spots in the city centre, remain hooked on the drug.
MORE: Welcome to Wolverhampton? Anger over BBC 3 documentary Drugs Map of Britain
MORE: BBC 3's Drugs Map of Britain - What did you think?
But by lighting up in the middle of Wolverhampton, Liam's mates are not breaking any laws. There is still no legislation against Black Mamba and other legal highs after the government delayed a ban that had been due to come into force on April 6.
No date has been set for the law to finally come into force, leading Liam to speculate on the potential devastation that legal highs could bring to communities up and down the country.
He says he's already 'lost two good friends' to mamba, and tells me he is determined to stop anyone else he knows from going the same way.
"My only reason for doing the BBC programme was to try and stop other people from making the same mistakes as me," the 27-year-old said.
"I'm trying to drive it into people's heads that if they carry on smoking it their lives will be ruined.
"I know people who will go and rob an old woman to get money for mamba because they want it so bad.
"I just want it to be banned."
Liam says his life took a dramatic downward turn early last year after he was evicted from his home in Blakenhall.
"It was a doss hole," he said, "but it was better than nothing."
The next few months saw him move between his parents' and friends' houses, while some nights were spent on the streets. It was during this period that he became hooked on legal highs.
"It was a case of anywhere I could stay," he tells me. "At one point I was living in a tent. I was addicted to mamba by then and didn't really care about anything else."
Liam says that legal highs have risen in popularity due their cheapness and ease of availability, with small packets available from head shops in most town and city centres for as little as £10.
"I've never taken cocaine or heroin," he adds.
"But with mamba you start smoking it and soon you're on it every day. For me all I thought about was where I was getting mamba from.
"I was getting £70 a week and every penny was going on mamba."
Eventually he managed to reduce his 3-gram-a-day addiction thanks to the support he received from the Wolverhampton Service User Involvement Team (SUIT).
Since he stopped taking legal highs Liam has started a relationship. He now lives in a shared house in Penn Fields and says he hopes to get married next year.
The father-of-two rarely sees his children - something he says he is keen to address. But next on his agenda is getting 'a proper job'.
"Now I feel like I've started to turn my life around and I'm ready to work," Liam said.
It was through SUIT that he achieved his first qualification. He is now due to start a work placement in catering that he hopes will lead to a full time job.
"If I'd have stayed on it I would probably be in prison by now," Liam says.
"And there's more mamba in there than there is on the streets."
