Legal highs in Wolverhampton: Black Mamba turned me into an 'animal'
"It turned me into an animal – I attacked my mate and I don't even remember doing it."
This is 34-year-old Jake's description of the effects of controversial psychotic drug Black Mamba, a legal high still freely available from shops and over the internet despite increasing concerns about its harmful side-effects.
The former plasterer from Bilston bitterly regrets ever experimenting with the drug which has dominated his every waking moment since he first took it two years ago.
"I'd been smoking weed but I wasn't getting anything from it anymore. I heard about this synthetic stuff that was supposed to be good and I thought I'd try it.
"When I first took it, I thought my heart was going to explode – it was beating that much I passed out. I'd put too much in it, I didn't realise. I woke up with bruises and grazes all over my body. It was at night on the street, by McDonald's in Bilston. I'd got bumps on my head, I must have fitted from the force of it."
Since then Jake's relationship with his live-in girlfriend has broken down and he walked out. He has been homeless for the past 10 months.
But his first bad experience with the herbal substance is a distant memory and he now smokes 20 joints of Black Mamba a day. He knows he is taking a big risk with his health every time he lights up but he does not have the strength to stop.
"The next time I tried it I couldn't stop smiling, I was giggling all the while, I felt very happy. It's better than weed because it works straight away.
"But every time I have a joint my heart keeps skipping a beat. There's something not right. I've tried not to have a spliff but the next day I've been really rough – sweating, weak, angry – the first thing I needed was a joint.
"It takes force so quickly, it rushes into your inside. But it gives you the runs, you don't want to eat, then you do want to eat, it messes up your timeline.
"Every Mamba is different, that's part of the attraction. It's mad. About three months ago I took it in a pipe and had a Mamba attack. My mate told me I took a run at him and started hitting him. He had to defend himself against me. It turned me into an animal.
"When I came out of it, he told me he had to kick me to keep me back. I didn't remember any of it."
The immediate future does not look great for Jake. Although some fellow addicts have successfully sought help through Wolverhampton Drug Service User Involvement Team, otherwise known as SUIT, in Temple Street, so far Jake has not approached them.
He says: "It ain't easy to come off. There's no substitutes you can move on to like there is with heroin. Black Mamba is still so new, no one realises what it does to people."
And while it remains legal and ridiculously easy to obtain, it seems unlikely that Jake will come off it any time soon.
Despite being homeless, he can walk into the library, order it on the internet and get it delivered to a friend's address.
He says: "It's so open and available. As long as you've got a debit card, you can get it online. There's a bloke in Walsall who buys it in drums in solution form off the internet and sells it for £20 a bottle.
"I wish I could stop. I bitterly regret ever getting involved with Black Mamba, it was a dreadful mistake. I've had enough."
