Super-strength killer heroin on streets of Brighton and Hove

Mike Pattinson, the director of the CRI charity, which works to rehabilitate drug users in the city, said that a “bumper crop” of heroin in Afghanistan this year could lead to an increase in overdoses.

The extra strong drugs are expected to reach the city in six months' time.

Brighton and Hove is currently the drug death capital of the UK with 50 drug related deaths in 2009.

Officials hope the total number who died of overdoses last year will be lower than that because a poor harvest in Afghanistan meant the heroin arriving in Sussex was much weaker than in previous years.

But this means users in the city will have a lower tolerance to the drug - meaning stronger heroin will cause more to accidentally overdose.

Mr Pattinson said: “There was a bad crop in Afghanistan last year, which meant that the heroin being taken recently was of very bad quality.

“The intelligence we are receiving is this year's crop is a bumper one, which means the quality will be much higher and people will overdose.

“They won't be able to cope with the strength of what they are taking.”

Paul Vickerman used to use £70 worth of heroin a day before getting clean.

The 47-year-old said: “Junkies don't know how strong a bag is until they've taken it.

“You can go to a different dealer, get something stronger and then the next thing you know, bang, you've got three ambulance men standing over you.

“When we used to get told on the news that there was a strong batch doing the rounds we used to joke they should put out a telephone number - that's the mentality of a junky.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: "We regularly assess the strength and quality of heroin being dealt in the city.

"Should any batches of the drug cause us more concern, we would work with CRI, support services and other health officials to alert users as to the potential dangers posed by overly pure heroin, similarly with batches that have been cut with other dangerous substances."