Then, in the 80's, cheap heroin from the East caused British drug use to leap appallingly.

It was the real thing, he had argued, a once-in-a-lifetime hit for an Edinburgh junky used to cheap Pakistani heroin.

A drug epidemic now rages here, fueled by high unemployment and the ready availability of cheap heroin passing through on the way to big markets in Europe.

Now he had heard that Marco Trapani was briefing his scientists to create a cheaper synthetic heroin.

According to Dr. Beyrer, that was when a flood of cheap heroin hit the market.

"We are particularly disturbed by reports about an increase in availability of high-purity, cheap heroin," he said.

However, this year's crop of over 4,000 tonnes is one of the largest ever and threatens to unleash a flood of cheap heroin into Europe.

The email from Midge was to tell him that another cargo of cheap Burmese heroin had just hit the Sydney streets.

With heroin cheaper than ever, users themselves say, a bag supplying a single potent high averages about $10, or less than the cost of a movie ticket with popcorn.

A bumper poppy crop in Afghanistan will worsen the outlook, producing cheap heroin that could turn opium smokers into heroin injectors and thus fuel the epidemic.