HEALTH watchdogs have warned heroin addicts that they are risking their lives by consuming up to eighteen spoonfuls of sugar a day.
Sugar, which causes obesity, heart disease and tooth decay, is added to heroin to disguise the bitter opiates and increase its appeal to younger users.
But the World Health Organisation says intravenous drug users are unwittingly consuming a sugary health time bomb.
A spokesman said: “Three hits a day, 21 hits a week – it all adds up to a bucketload of empty calories concealed behind the narcotic bliss of smack.”
Habitual drug user Tom Booker said: “One of my main motivations for taking heroin is weight loss and to bring out my cheekbones.
“Yet after years of doing smack I look more like Eddie Large after a cruise ship holiday than Renton in Trainspotting.”
The WHO believes hidden sugar is largely responsible for drug-related crime.
The spokesman said: “Injecting street grade heroin is like eating nine bags of Haribo in one go. You practically have to go and do a burglary just to give your body something to do.”
