"THERE'S a reason they call this stuff the Angel of Death,” says ex-addict Jason.

It is just before midnight in Brighton’s North Street and we are watching a man on a heroin comedown. He is retching, shuddering and screaming. He’s in his forties.

Drug deaths across the country are at an all-time high.

New figures show 2,917 people died from illicit drugs in England and Wales last year – more than ever before.

Heroin is responsible for about half these deaths. It kills more people in the UK than any other illegal drug.

The Office for National Statistics found that people in this man’s age group – Generation X, born in the 1960s and 1970s and now aged between 40 and 59 – are the worst hit.

The figures show a strange pattern. Drug addiction has followed this generation over time. It isn’t young people who are most likely to die from overdosing, it’s Generation X.

They were the biggest drug users in their twenties, with the rise of heroin in the 80s and early 90s, and continue to account for the majority of drug poisoning deaths now they are in their forties and fifties.

Every addict The Argus spoke with was in this age bracket.

“You get a warm feeling from it, a kind of glow,” said Jason, the 40-year-old ex-user who has agreed to introduce me to some of Brighton’s heroin addicts. Several of them in North Street have taken heroin tonight.

“After that you feel very drowsy. All the pain goes away,” Jason said.

“That’s the only reason I take it now,” said 44-year-old user Terry. He is in a wheelchair.

“I lost my leg to a heroin injection in the groin 20 years ago. I had it amputated. The needle snapped my main artery.

“I’m still using in Brighton, but there’s no buzz from it now. It just gets me well.”

Terry said he picks up heroin for as little as £5 a bag. All the users I meet inject regularly.

None are surprised so many of their generation die from drug misuse. One, who did not wish to be named, said: “I started using at 20. The youngest guy on heroin I know is 21, but most of us are in our forties and fifties. I don’t know anyone older who’s still alive.”

The effects of heroin addiction, Jason said, are devastating.

“It’s not just death. It ruins your life. It ruins your family’s life. It dictated what I could and couldn’t do.

“You think you’ve got control of the drug, but it’s the other way round.

“After you start to inject, you want more and more. You can’t get off the stuff.

“I used to smoke it, but it doesn’t work after a while. Then you start to inject. The comedown is not nice. You get very ill. But it’s such a good feeling at first that you do it again and again and again.

“The stuff you get around here isn’t pure heroin – there’s all sorts in it. It’s not as accessible as you might think, but you can usually walk up to a corner and pick up.

“Detoxing is hard, especially if you do it raw and come off it by yourself.

“In the end I had no choice. I was looking at seven to ten years in prison. I was put on a methadone programme and I haven’t looked back. I don’t touch it now.

“I look around now and see drug dealers in Brighton lining their pockets while users are on their way to an early grave.

“There’s the physical stuff: sickness, dehydration, vomiting and the rest of it. But there’s more than that. It’s soul destroying.

“This guy’s my case in point.”

The man on a heroin comedown is doubled over. He’s screaming “I can’t see, I can’t see.”

A few minutes later, he is out cold on a bench by the Clock Tower.

If you have been affected by the discussion of drugs in this article, you can call the Government’s drug education service FRANK on 0300 1236600 for confidential advice.