THE health warning on a cigarette packet has taken on a whole new meaning with the first incident of a drug-spiked cigarette in north Kent.

The cigarettes – known as fries, which are dipped in embalming fluid and other chemicals – are believed to be the latest tool in date-rape attacks.

The incident, which was dealt with by Darent Valley’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre at Dartford, has prompted the hospital to warn smokers that cigarettes should not be accepted from others.

Senior nurse Harry Smith said: “Do not accept a casual cigarette from anyone. Only smoke and light your own cigarettes.”

The spiked variety are made up of tobacco or marijuana – or a mixture of the two.

When the chemicals inside the tobacco or in a soaked filter tip are lit, the substances vaporise.

For smokers who inhale the mixture into their lungs, the effects can take hold quickly.

Mr Smith said: “From here, it is absorbed almost instantly and it passes straight to the brain. The effect is, therefore, almost instant.

“However, the effect will not be long-lasting. One scenario is the administering of a fry to cause giddiness or nausea so the victim will accept a drink without thinking of the consequences.”

The drink, too, may be spiked. Some chemical mixtures have been known to include a recreational drug, posing a further danger to those who come into contact with such a cigarette.

Mr Smith said: “This drug adds an incredible level of danger to the user – it can kill.”

The cigarettes will taste strange and have an unusual and pungent smell.

Mr Smith said: “This is not a scare thing. We want to put this into the public domain so people are aware.

“We are not inundated with cases – this is a case that has just passed through.”

FACTFILE:

* The first British victim of a spiked cigarette was thought to be in Swansea in South Wales about a year ago. But South Wales police said at the time that the investigation into the use of a drugged cigarette in the alleged rape of a local woman was just one line of inquiry officers were following up.

* Along with French fries, other common names for spiked cigarettes include amp, water-water, drank and wet daddy.

* The cigarettes can be dipped in drugs, alcohol or solvents.

* Fries first emerged in America in the late 1990s.

* According to a 1998 study by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, those who smoke fry cigarettes experience toxic psychosis, hallucinations, delusions and sometimes unconsciousness.