London, July 4 (ANI): A new study has revealed that girls as young as 15 are resorting to the drug speed, class A and class B, for losing weight.

The Amphetamine drugs that are snorted and injected contract appetite and trigger maniac behavior, which results in burning of calories.

Robin Herne with Suffolk's Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said that speed is used by girls as replacements for meals.

Herne warned that the drug can lead to binge eating, which in turn would result in eating disorders.

“There is anecdotal evidence that girls sometimes use speed as a meal substitute. Once the drug wears off the stomach realizes 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,” the Daily Mail quoted Herne, as saying.

Miss East Anglia, Rosanna Carr Taylor, who supports eating disorder charity B-eat, said that size-zero fad promoted by skinny models has resulted in drug induced look.

'The use of skinny models is promoting a drug-induced look as fashionable, something we should clamp down on,” Taylor said. (ANI)

My name is Trisha Gura and I am author of “Lying in Weight: the Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women” (Harper Collins, May 2007). Your story is intriguing similar to the women I interviewed who turned to cocaine as a weight-loss drug. I have seen many women switch from substance abuse to eating disorders and back. Addiction is addiction no matter what the medium. Great article.

Trisha Gura Ph. D, www.trishagura.com, 06 Jul 2007