The War on Cheese

No, this isn't another dispatch from the new, alarming war on obesity. Just more of same from the comfortable, familiar war on drugs.

"A powerful and highly addictive new street drug known as 'cheese'…so called because it resembles crumbled Parmesan" is the new meth, which was, of course, the new crack. "The rise of the drug, a mixture of black tar heroin and powdered headache tablets, has been described as an epidemic."

The Guardian is there with the obligatory "first hit is free/cheap" warning:

Dealers often sell it at $2 a time to get youngsters hooked. Because it is snorted, teenagers do not realise they are taking such a lethal heroin-based drug.

In fact, the article seems to have been written directly off the new drug hysteria template. The big finish:

Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said: 'We've had this drug in the community for some time and didn't recognise it at first. Cheese heroin has been the most instantly addictive and deadliest drug that we have seen since the crack cocaine epidemic.'

Via Fark.