A GRANDMOTHER has become Britain's oldest drug smuggler after taking Spice into a prison where warders have been "dropping like flies" after inhaling its fumes.

Elsie Watson, 68, is behind bars after taking the drug into Holme House Prison in Stockton, where last month 20 staff had to go on sick leave in the space of two days after being overcome by smoke from cells.

Watson, a former prison nurse who has never been in trouble with the law before, was caught with 3.28g of the psychoactive drug as she visited her grandson at the prison.

Jailing her for six months, Judge Stephen Ashurst told her it was a “a truly sad occasion" because she was the kind of person that nobody would expect to be in the dock of a court.

Watson, from Seaham, County Durham, was spotted acting suspiciously and caught with the package of drugs in her hand, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson.

She told police she came across a man in the visitor centre who passed her the package and said: “It’ll be okay if you drop this in the canteen.”

She went to the toilets, looked at the package and believed it was probably spice, a court was told.

Despite her “misgivings”, she kept carrying it until she was caught on August 20 last year, three months after the drug was criminalised.

Spice is worth thousands of pounds in prison, where it is known to cause significant problems endangering inmates and staff, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Watson admitted possessing a psychoactive substance with intent to supply - a crime carrying a maximum sentence of seven years.

Lewis Kerr, mitigating, said the bizarre offence was an “impulsive action on her part”.

He said she had no involvement in the drugs scene before she was approached in the prison visitor centre and had the drug package put into her hand.

Mr Kerr argued sending her to prison would serve no benefit to society and would stop her doing decent work in the community.

Watson, of Byron Terrace, Seaham, was visibly emotional as Judge Ashurst passed sentence.

He said: “You had the opportunity to withdraw from this ludicrous decision you made. But you didn’t, I’m afraid, have the strength of character to say no, or to find some way of leaving the substance there without taking it through into the prison.

“For reasons which are very difficult to understand, you were unable to say no and to take a different decision The Prison Officers Association said staff are "dropping like flies" after inhaling Spice.

Some prisoners are having the drug impregnated onto paper and sent in as letters. They then steam the paper using kettles and inhale the fumes.

Last month, a 5.6kg haul of the drug - the largest ever found in a British jail - was recovered in cell searches.

At that time 16 prison officers were on sick leave with symptoms including hallucinations and racing heart rates after inhaling the drug as the smoke is blown from cells by addicted prisoners.

The drug, classed as a new psychoactive substance and formerly known as a legal high, induces a zombie-like state in users who often find themselves unable to speak or walk.

The Prison Officers Association has issued an alert over safety after the drug was discovered in cappuccino, Oats-so-Simple and Weetabix packets during two cell searches at the jail, which the Government awarded £9m last December purely to crackdown on Spice users.

Cleveland Police has launched an investigation into how containers with 1.6kg and 4kg of the substance were smuggled into the category B jail, The record drugs find at the jail, which mainly serves communities of the Tees Valley, South West Durham, East Durham and North Yorkshire, has been estimated to be worth up to £200,000.

As the Prison Officers Association (POA) confirmed drugs were being smuggled into the jail on an industrial scale, it revealed unprecedented numbers were being hit by Spice fumes.

Prisoner inhale the drug by smoking it or vaporising it in a boiling kettle.

The POA say there are 16 staff on sickness absence following being either intentionally poisoned by or passively inhaling Spice Since January, the prison has seen up to 22 Spice-related incidents, many including violence, in a single day and last Wednesday alone, eight staff, and on Thursday, 12, went off sick from Spice.