Horrifying footage of 'Spice' drug turning homeless people into 'walking dead' emerges

Marketed under the names spice, spike, flamingo, or K2 — this underground drug has become one of the most inexpensive and dangerous ways to get high, reports say.

Videos surfacing online have circled the globe, capturing disturbing sights of homeless people falling victim to the drug's lethal side effects.

In a recent video captured at a city center in Manchester, England, a homeless man reportedly abusing the substance can be seen in a frozen-like state akin to others video-recorded while under the drug's influence.

Julie Boyle, a support worker at a youth homeless charity in Manchester, says the street drug has had terrifying effects on the homeless people in the area.

"In the city center, there are people who just look like they are frozen, like the walking dead, sat in a catatonic state not moving," Boyle told the Daily Mail. "You wouldn't even know they were alive."

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"I first noticed it probably the beginning of last week but then it's intensified more as the week's gone on," she said.

Manchester has reported a recent surge in ambulance calls stemming from incidents involving the drug, many in which the victim would kneel forward, as depicted in the above video, only to injure themselves as they fall face-first to the ground or floor, a local report says.

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Spice, a synthetic marijuana that was once classified as a "legal high" until it was outlawed in April 2016, and now street dealers are distributing it according to various local reports.

With the drug linked to seizures, psychotic episodes, suicidal thoughts, and, in some cases, death, law enforcement is being urged by locals to step up patrols and take more action in the area.

Bus driver Gavin Rodda, 35, is making efforts to raise awareness of the growing drug problem by taking photos of homeless people using the substance at the station and uploading them to Facebook.

See the photos he uploaded online

Rodda told BBC that although the North Wales Police has increased patrols in the area, it is necessary that they set up a base near the bus station.

"Measures have been put in place by the council but to date, they're not working," Rodda said.

"I want people to see this and come together to find a solution to the major drug problem that Wrexham currently has," he continued. "Is it really going to take a death of an addict inside the bus station to make a change? I hope not."