A lethal drug dubbed 'hillbilly heroin' that has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in America has surfaced in Britain, prompting fears among police, customs officers and drug workers that it could give rise to a whole new generation of addicts.
The illegal use of Oxycodone, a powerful painkiller only available on prescription and normally dispensed only to the terminally ill, is spreading rapidly across parts of the US, leaving devastated communities in its wake.
Experts say that because the drug is more potent and more addictive than heroin, the potential for misuse is almost limitless. The small white tablets can be swallowed whole, crushed and snorted or mixed with water and injected. Each tablet costs £5 to £20 depending on its strength. The most expensive are at least 10 times more powerful than anything else on the market.
In America, where it is sold under the brand name OxyContin, the drug has been linked to at least 300 deaths involving non-medical use in the past two years.
Last week the first British victim was named as Samantha Jenkinson, a pretty 18-year-old from Hull who dreamt of becoming a model. Soon after she had paid for her first portfolio of professional pictures, she joined a few friends for a night out on the town. They began drinking wine and beer and smoking cannabis before going to a party in the west of the city.
A variety of pills were doing the rounds and at some point Samantha swallowed up to seven Oxycodone. Within half an hour she had passed out and her friends lay her down on a mattress to sleep it off. When they couldn't wake her the following morning they called 999. Paramedics arrived and told them their friend had been dead for several hours.
Geoff Ogden of the Hull and East Riding Drug Action Team said: 'This is the first time we have come across the street use of this particular drug and it is a worrying development. We have asked the police to make inquiries about the source of the tablets. The manufacturers are also deeply concerned. and will be meeting with me in the near future. We all want to find out whether this was an isolated case or part of a larger batch.'
Essentially a synthetic form of morphine, OxyContin is popular because it contains more of the active ingredient than similar products on the market. The tablets are formulated so that the drug is released over a number of hours.
The idea was that patients would need only two tablets a day rather than six or seven as is the case with other painkillers. However, by crushing the tablets it is possible to get the full hit of the drug in one go. Like other opiates, the drug is highly addictive and has led to an increase in petty crime. In parts of the Appalachian valley in the US, 80 per cent of crime is believed to be OxyContin-related.
In a recent report, America's drug tsar John Walters found that while the price and purity of drugs such as heroin and cocaine had remained stable in recent months, the abuse of OxyContin had risen rapidly.
'We are now seeing OxyContin abuse breaking out in new areas and spreading across economic, ethnic and regional lines. It has moved from being abused in mostly rural areas to more metropolitan areas. It is a problem for all of us to take seriously.'
In addition to Hull, there have been reports of the use of OxyContin in Manchester and Ireland. It is growing in popularity in Dublin and many pharmacists in the city are refusing to stock it for fear they may become the target of robberies by both addicts and dealers.
The abuse of prescription drugs is growing among teenagers who use them to enhance the effects of alcohol. Although most are listed as Class A products, teenagers believe they are safer than street drugs.
'Samantha was opposed to drugs such as heroin and ecstasy,' said her mother, Elaine. 'I don't know where she could have got the Oxycodone from and what would have made her take it. We have so many unanswered questions and it looks like we may never know the truth. It's hard enough to move on - this makes it even harder.