 TLO what's pop We are on kick KIC K calm We are not live, but you can leave a like comment subscribe turn on your post notification bells Let's continue to grow the family from Chicago to the UK. This is Where any highlights from the live will be if you happen to miss one? We do have Patreon I just posted Our line of line of duty W show Post five days a week what you can't watch on YouTube. We watched there. Don't forget. We do got merch man I appreciate everybody counting some merch man who did This is this is Interesting, this is interesting. Don't forget. We also got the discord man If you're looking for any of those links that you can follow me on Down in the description. There's something called a link tree. Just click it all of my information pops up This is the monkey dust drug epidemic that has Stoke on Trent in its grips ITV news what is this never heard of it But first but first to the worrying rise of a dangerous drug that's ruining lives and wrecking communities It's called monkey dust and it's being linked to violence and unpredictable behavior piling pressure on emergency services The government is currently reviewing its class B classification But in stoke on Trent's the country's so-called monkey dust capital the situation is already Critical our social affairs correspondent stacey foster reports monkey does it look like That definitely looks like a class a of some sort on the distressing effects of this desperate epidemic Yeah, here that that's thunder They are some of the most vulnerable people living on the streets of stoke on Trent What brings them together is drugs and increasingly monkey dust Cheaper than alcohol at as little as two pound a hit its effects differ from user to user And it's not entirely clear why it's become so popular here Simon used to be a plumber now. He spent his time on the streets smoking dust He got a trade like a good job plumber. You'll always need farmers and he just okay. I asked him why he takes it I was arrested a very young age and I was incarcerated in stoke heat When it was a youth custody Forget all that it just makes me realize just how I can To be still working as a plumber, it's will be when I got my job I need housing I need income For the furlough was yellow That's time dust confiscated by police officers is being tested at Staffordshire University So you can see there a little bad, but it's quite a large amount of powder there And when you compare that to some of the others and can see the sort of variation that we've got In color in some of those obviously this one here a bit more of a brown color compared to the sort of more yellow Oh, no, whoa, whoa That's supposed to be all the same type of drug Ain't no way and that one so that'd be really interesting to see what is inside those samples look like H ITV news was given exclusive access to the lab where samples will be deconstructed To establish why this city has an issue with monkey dust It's an MD, huh, okay synthetic MD Yo We are looking to identify what the main constituent is and that will just really help to Identify whether or not it is MDPHP that they're taking when they refer to the term monkey dust Y'all got to remember that I'm a classically trained scientist. I went I studied Harvard IT You know I'm saying Yale Lancashire All that so when they when they put out these words Got it By whether or not it is MDPHP that they're taking when they refer to the term monkey dust Or has that term now become more of a colloquial term for any one of these synthetic capital Videos like this have alleged monkey dust users becoming violent have circulated since 2014 And have prompted the government to review its status as a class B drug Sarah Page has co-authored a report looking at user experience We have 13 people who had used monkey dust which will inform the home office's decision And then we found from people with lived experience that they didn't resonate with that kind of media image That has been out there around monkey dust because of the government cutbacks on services the police What's up with the UK and synthetic stuff? Like this is not anything new throughout the history of me doing Reactions to the UK when it comes to DRUGS is Like synthetic run runs deep through the UK You know I'm saying I like why is that It's because I do know why because it's cheaper. It's easier to get and you know Feed feed feed what they need to feed That's what messed up Synthetic is it's just worse for you. He's very much working as the arm of a maybe a social worker or anything synthetic should be class a a plus If it's synthetic is a plus above anything else There's class a and then there's a plus for synthetic anything synthetic. Just make a whole new category Looks work in some cases the ultimate aim is to take monkey dust off the streets There's no denying that it's taking up a lot of impossible. Yeah, I've been working on the crack epidemic since the 70s 80s Still there what you mean taking off the street? Never gonna happen, but but but like, you know slow it down Maybe because it's newer or maybe right police resources And there's a thought that making it a class a drug could help look at 300 350 cool anything synthetic should be class a plus Bulls and per month in relation to monkey dust one of our key Ambitions is is to pursue those that sell in monkey dust on the street those that are profiteering from those vulnerable individuals and if we increase the Classification then it gives the courts greater sentencing power for those individuals that are supplying monkey dust and the misery that it brings It also gives higher sentencing powers to those individuals taking it Who those independent who those individuals who are strung out on it Will be throwing jail because of an addiction instead of getting proper help to it's a two-edged sword Stop trying to make it sound like it's one edged and doing one thing will solve all your problems because it won't How do you hate me when they be doing that? It's cap the streets of Staffordshire And it's those stories told at the side of the road that show how desperate the situation is Emily has been living here for five weeks. I think about it catch Emily with some monkey dust in this class as a class a She gets she gets a lot of she's gonna get sentenced crazy too as long with those You know I'm saying dealers and things of that nature. He's lost her mom her job and has just had it Not that I disagree with what they're talking about, but it's just don't make it sound like it's one problem One solution is good and it's gonna solve your problems. It's not it's gonna It's gonna incarcerate people who don't just don't Deserve to be incarcerated who really need help like like miss carriage. She uses monkey He's lost her mom her job and has just had a miscarriage She uses monkey dust and heroin I'm mentally as it to you I could walk or fall down the street right now and get you five different people You getting help Who is this other dude talking in the back I Stoke on Trent has been awarded 3 million pounds to help support drug users in the city But at the moment for many it's easier to get a cheap hit than it is to get help Stacey Foster ITV news Stoke on Trent She might need to sweep over there TLO man, let me know what y'all thought if y'all run across there's what it's doing in your community, man