Albert Moyer, Jr.

Krokodil originated in Russia but has spread across the world at an alarming rate.

It has become so popular because it is three times cheaper to produce and buy than heroin and the intense high lasts for an hour and a half.

Dubbed ‘the drug that eats junkies’, it rots from the inside, causing such severe damage to tissue that users suffer from gangrenous sores which open all the way to the bone.

Continual use of Krokodil causes blood vessels to burst, leaving skin green and scaly among addicts eventually causing gangrene and their flesh to begin to rot.

Rabid use in Russia has caused up to 2.5 million people to register and seek treatment as addicts and the average life span for a user is only two to three years.

The condition can lead to limbs being amputated, but life expectancy for addicts is at the most two to three years, with the majority dying within a year.

The drug, whose name means ‘crocodile’ – reportedly a reference to the way it turns users’ skin scaly – also rots their brains.

Krokodil is a sickening cocktail of over the counter painkillers, paint thinner, acid and phosphorus. In some cases, petrol is also added.

The resulting mixture is called desomorphine – a derivative of morphine – and is extremely addictive.