Shannon Cowan, 29, from Biddulph near Stoke-on-Trent, has shared her story of addiction in the hopes she can prevent others from falling into the dark world of the synthetic drug
A mum has opened up on her struggles with a monkey dust addiction that left her hallucinating visions of dead family members. Shannon Cowan has been sober for 14 months and is now campaigning to raise awareness of the synthetic drug, she says is “worse than crack”.
The 29-year-old, from Biddulph near Stoke-on-Trent, said her life was “destroyed” by monkey dust which costs just £2 per hit. The mum explained she got hooked on the dangerous stimulant after suffering severe domestic abuse.
But now she is fighting back and is urging the Government to upgrade monkey dust from a Class B drug to Class A. She told StokeonTrentLive: “I started this petition because I’ve seen and experienced how this drug ruins lives.
“In 2022, my cousin died from a heart attack after suffering with addiction, mainly monkey dust. She was only 42.”
Shannon explained how she got hooked: “A partner I had was an on-and-off monkey dust user. At the time, I knew he was taking something, but I didn’t really know what. It made him violent and unable to control his temper.
“Eventually he fractured my eye socket and knocked one of my teeth out while he was under the influence. That got him jailed for 44 months in 2023.
“I was placed into a new property after that and ended up getting mixed up with what I thought were new friends. That led to a monkey dust addiction of my own.
“I was using it to deal with childhood trauma and the domestic violence I’d suffered. I took it to try to get through the day but it just made everything worse. Luckily, I got clean a year ago. But it completely ruined my life,” she said.
“It’s horrible. It makes you paranoid like you wouldn’t believe. I set up cameras in my own house because I was convinced people were coming inside.
“It destroys your ability to trust other people. I didn’t even trust my own family. It got to the point where I ended up being dropped off at Harplands Hospital for mental health treatment. I thought the staff there were poisoning my water.
“I smoked cannabis for a long time, which is a Class B drug, but the effects of that are nothing compared to monkey dust. When monkey dust hits you, it’s 100 times worse than cocaine. It’s an instant high.
“You forget about everything and everyone. Your feelings become non-existent. But it wears off quickly. So you need more. Otherwise that paranoia starts creeping in.
“I only got off it when I reached breaking point. I was essentially traumatised out of it. The people I was doing it with would try to make me more paranoid to make themselves laugh. They’d tell me my dead cousin was outside. I looked around and realised this wasn’t a life that I wanted. I cut all those people off.”
At the height of her addiction, Shannon was hallucinating people in cars with guns which led to her smashing a car with a brick. She told the Sun: “I was seeing people sat in cars holding guns at me. I was seeing people that weren’t even there.”
“I had people around me talking about seeing dead people, seeing my dead cousin outside my house.”
She added: “It’s a nasty drug that should not just be treated as a class B. I don’t think the Government are taking it seriously enough. It has such a harmful effect on people and the community. It’s having a massive effect on the city. People smashing up shops and stealing stuff to buy more.
“The people that sell it are vile. They’re nasty people selling poison. I think they should be given harsher sentences. Honestly, I think monkey dust is worse than crack and heroin.
“When I was an addict, I saw people on those drugs and they weren’t as bad. I know people who have lost everything and it’s only going to keep getting worse. It’s a Stoke-on-Trent problem now but how long until it spreads to other places?
“Using monkey dust was a traumatic time, but I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve been sharing my story on my social media accounts and handing out leaflets with QR codes linking to the petition. Even if my petition doesn’t work and I can’t get it reclassified, I just hope that sharing what happened to me can deter other vulnerable people like me from using it. To stop another family suffering.”
Shannon’s petition page can be accessed here.
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