"I failed to care how high priced it turned into , I failed to care if I had any cash left - I simply desired to shop for it."
Rather than doing faculty paintings or spending time with friends, all 14-year- vintage Ben, whose call we've changed, may want to consider turned into seeking to get preserve of the drug Spice.
"I have become depending on it and I felt like a drug addict, I realised I turned into doing it to sense everyday and regulated," he tells the BBC.
He says he first attempted a Spice vape at the same time as at a friend's house, believing it contained THC - the primary psychoactive element in hashish . Vapes stashed in vintage teddy bears
What turned into simply withinside the vape turned into a artificial cannabinoid, a lab-made drug meant to imitate the outcomes of hashish .
"After the use of it [Spice] for a at the same time as , I realised the outcomes of actual THC could be different," says Ben.
"I do not know why I failed to understand this quicker however the color turned into very artificial - vibrant blue or red - glaringly it is now no longer from a plant."
His testimony comes as a brand new file reveals one in six vapes examined throughout 38 faculties in England include Spice.
The drug may be greater dangerous and unpredictable than hashish and may reason dizziness, respiratory problems, coronary heart palpitations, psychosis and seizures.
Ben, who's now 16, says he turned into fortunate now no longer to have any instantaneously detrimental reaction, even though little or no is understood approximately the long- time period outcomes of Spice use, especially in children.
"I located myself doing it each 2nd of the day," he says.
"I'd be like 'oh, you are now no longer as excessive as you have been 10 mins ago', so I'd have any other bit."
He says he used his vape everywhere, consisting of in lecture rooms at faculty .Spice is inexpensive to provide than hashish however has a good deal stronger outcomes and lots of human beings buying Spice vapes accept as true with they're getting true THC.
Ben's mum Katie, whose call we've additionally changed, says she located out he turned into the use of Spice vapes from his friends' parents.
"They [his friends] controlled to forestall due to the fact they knew it turned into horrific however he couldn't," she says.
"He used to cover them withinside the gutter above his bed room window and withinside the lavatory cistern - I'd reduce open his vintage teddy bears and he'd stashed them in there - my husband and I failed to recognize what to do."Spice and THC vapes are unlawful withinside the UK and can't be bought in nook stores and supermarkets like nicotine vapes.
It is likewise unlawful to promote a vape or any nicotine product to a person beneathneath the age of 18.
Ben says he were given his from a supplier he located on social media, assembly them at a close-by teach station.
"Without it [Spice], the entirety could sense actually dull, I'd sense demotivated," he says.
"I knew it turned into horrific for me however I turned into in a vicious cycle of desiring to get greater and as quickly as I had completed one I'd get any other one - even if I'd get one confiscated, I'd straight away be set on getting any other one."
He says what started as "communal activity" have become "very solitary" as soon as he turned into addicted.