'Black Mamba stopped my heart': Extreme effects of legal high revealed
'My heart stopped for two minutes when I was on it'. These are the words of a man who took the legal high Black Mamba for six months to test its dangers.
Simon Dudley has spoken of the extreme effects of the synthetic form of cannabis and is now campaigning to get the drug off the streets.
Mr Dudley, a member of the Green Party and local political activist, said he sampled Black Mamba for a six month period when he was working at Wicked Headshop, South Street, Exeter around three years ago.
He said he was asked to sample the substance so that the shop could decide whether to sell it or not.
Recounting his experience of the substance, Mr Dudley, said: "My heart stopped for two minutes when I was on it.
"I just want to get this substance off the streets and stop it from killing people.
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"The effects of the drug got so bad I had to dive straight in the shower at one point to regulate my body temperature.
"Then I remembered what my friend, who is a doctor, told me to do if I was worried about dehydrating.
"I had to hold sugar in my hand to try and stop the fluid draining from my body."
"My friend, Nathan Boyd, also had his stomach explode from taking Mamba. You just don't know what's in it."
Mr Dudley, of Williamson Street, Penn Fields, decided to launch the campaign after years of work around the de-criminalisation of cannabis.
"I've smoked cannabis for 20 years and never experienced anything half as bad as what happened to me on Mamba.
"My friend, who smoked it for 30 years believes he managed to cure his own cancer by smoking cannabis, whereas the chemicals in Mamba can cause all sorts of illnesses."
Mr Dudley, who is known as Dr Dudley on his YouTube channel, hopes that by placing posters and flyers in local community centres and homeless shelters he will prevent any more people from taking the drug.
"If I can even get a full list of the ingredients on the packets or even on the posters I'm putting up, I think it will help.
"The trouble is they seem to change so often that it can seem impossible," he said.
"I just hope that my efforts will go some way in helping the ambulance and that when they come to treat someone who has smoked this stuff. At least then they'll have an idea of what they're dealing with."
The campaign in the middle of BBC3 documentary series 'Drugs Map of Britain', which aired 'Wolverhampton: Getting off Mamba' as its first episode.
'Getting Off Mamba' tells the story of a 27-year-old Liam and his addiction to Black Mamba, which programme makers say is flooding the streets of the city.
Film maker Suemay Oram followed Liam for three months and the show revealed how easy it is to buy the substance – a synthetic version of cannabis, often sold in smoking mixtures. The documentary showed there were four or five outlets selling the substance in the city centre alone.
However, the programme was slammed by former mayor Councillor Milkinder Jaspal, who said: "Unfortunately, negativity sells and recently there have been a lot of surveys and television programmes that seem intent on bringing Wolverhampton down.
"There are problems in Wolverhampton with drugs and homelessness, but these issues exist in every town and city in Britain."
The documentary followed the recent announcement that a law to make Black Mamba, among other substances, illegal has been put back. It was due to come into force in April.
The delay has been blamed on the definition of a psychoactive substance not being robust enough to be enforced.
