Doctors across Canada are sounding the alarm after a 19 year old Toronto woman died over the weekend when she injected heroin directly into her nipples. “Nipple injections are becoming very popular with teenagers,” says Dr. Faisal Desdrog, a substance abuse specialist. “The high you get from taking drugs through your nipples is a lot more intense and a lot more exciting than what you might get through more traditional consumption techniques. Unfortunately, that intensity comes at a price — namely, nipple injections are much less safe.”

Dr. Desdrog says that over fifty young Canadians have died so far this year as a result of this formerly obscure technique. “The internet is spreading awareness of nipple injections. Video sharing sites have played a huge role in popularizing the practice with teenagers ,” says Dr. Desdrog. “There’s an entire subculture that’s growing up around it. Fewer young people are smoking marijuana, or drinking beer — they view it as dorky, like something old people do. Heroin nipple injections though? That’s edgy, it’s new, it’s exciting, it’s not something their parents ever did. So they’re embracing it.”

According to new research by The Urban Measuring Institute, teenagers are now more likely to stick a needle in their nipples than they are to smoke a joint. “A lot of parents are still operating as if it’s 1995, but this is the new millennium. Drug use has changed, and we as a society need to acknowledge that before it’s too late. How many more children are going to die from nipple injections before we do something about it?”