‘Frankenstein’ drug 300x stronger than HEROIN ‘is becoming the new Xanax’ bought by vulnerable teens on social media

A "FRANKENSTEIN" drug 300 times stronger than heroin is "becoming the new Xanax" - with vulnerable teens buying it on social media.

Nitazenes are made in clandestine Chinese labs and smuggled into the UK by criminals.

They are mixed with other drugs including Xanax - and have been linked to 49 deaths in the UK.

The drugs can kill people by "depressing their respiratory drive" - in other words, by stopping them from breathing.

The National Crime Agency, known as "Britain's FBI", first spotted the drug among overdose patients around two years ago.

Experts blamed the rise of nitazenes on the Taliban's crackdown against Afghanistan's poppy harvest - which provides most of the world's heroin supply.

Dealers now trick addicts into buying a lethal mix of nitazenes cut with other drugs - which they pretend is heroin.

The potency of nitazenes has seen them nicknamed the "Frankenstein" drug.

Cops arrested 11 people and recovered 150,000 nitazene tablets after raiding a drug factory in Waltham Forest, north London in October.

Addiction expert Ian Hamilton told the : "They have begun circulating over the last year.

"This is in part due to the reduction in supply of heroin from Afghanistan as the Taliban clamp down on opium cultivation.

"Unfortunately demand for opiates has not reduced and it seems these type of drugs are filling the gap.

"Most people won't be aware that they are using these types of opiates or how strong they are until it's too late and they experience problems including overdose."

Drug experts said that vulnerable teens can buy nitazenes on the dark web.

Will Helstrip, 18, from Pocklington in East Yorkshire, died after taking nitazenes which he had bought online - wrongly thinking that they were sleeping pills.

His devastated mum Ruth told an inquest: "We do not know what Will thought he had ordered.

"But what we do know without a shadow of a doubt was that he would never have known it would be laced with a new, highly dangerous, lethal synthetic drug.

"It is 1500 times stronger than morphine and up to 20 times stronger than fentanyl. Will never stood a chance."