Teenage girls 'using speed to lose weight'

Teenage girls 'using speed to lose weight'

Last updated at 22:51pm on 3rd July 2007 Comments

Teenage girls are reported to have turned to drugs like speed to lose weight

Girls as young as 15 are using the powerful clubbing drug speed to help them lose weight, experts have warned.

The amphetamine, a Class B drug when sniffed and Class A when injected, suppresses the appetite and causes manic behaviour, which also helps to burn calories.

While teenage boys take it for a party high, it is thought that girl users are trying to slim down to the size of models and celebrities.

Robin Herne, with Suffolk's Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said: ' There is anecdotal evidence that girls sometimes use speed as a meal substitute.'

But he warned: 'Once the drug wears off the stomach realises it is empty. This induces periods of not eating and then bingeing. From there it doesn't take a lot to go into an eating disorder.'

Miss East Anglia, Rosanna Carr Taylor, who supports eating disorder charity B-eat, said: 'The use of skinny models is promoting a drug-induced look as fashionable, something we should clamp down on.'