Teenage girls 'using speed to lose weight'

A Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) said they had evidence that youngsters were taking amphetamines in an attempt to shed the pounds. The drug induces manic behaviour similar to the bingeing and starving seen in eating disorders.

Commonly used as a party drug, teenage girls are using the powder because it can lead to dramatic, but short-term, weight loss.

Robin Herne, a drug trainer with DAAT in Suffolk, visits schools to educate students about drugs and the dangers they pose.

Mr Herne said: "Amphetamine was initially designed as a diet drug and appetite repressant.

"It affects the part of the brain that feels hunger. This means that regardless of how empty the stomach is, the brain does not think it is hungry so people do not take food in. The weight then drops quickly.

But he added: "Once the drug wears off the stomach realises it is empty and whatever weight came off piles back on. So it induces periods of not eating and then bingeing. From there it doesn't take a lot to go into an eating disorder pattern.

"Although they may not be using it to diet, it can cause food-related problems."

The drug is usually a white powder, unless mixed with another substance giving it a more off-white hue, and £8 worth would normally last five to six hours. It causes manic behaviour, stimulating the brain, usually causing the person to talk incessantly and to fidget constantly - again causing weight loss by burning calories.

Mr Herne said boys tended to be attracted to it as it meant they could go out dancing all night, because it also stops people's ability to calm down enough for sleep.

"Anecdotally, we have got 16 to 17-year-olds and even younger reporting that they have used speed or know friends who have," he said.

"When younger people start it is more worrying in terms of how their bodies react because there are chemical imbalances in the brain due to puberty."

But Mr Herne said DAAT was tackling the problem by talking to youngsters, educating them and raising awareness of the issue so they would feel confident to seek help when they need it.