A new custom of offering houseguests heroin, instead of alcohol, has popped up in North Korea.

This new trend started to appear last fall, reported Open Radio for North Korea, a South Korean radio station transmitting programs to the communist country, on Sunday. A source from North Hamgyeong Province said that a growing number of people are serving visitors drugs as a snack, according to the report.

Especially, in areas such as Cheongjin, the capital of the province, and the Musan region, it has become the proper etiquette to recommend drugs to close friends who visit there. Unlike alcohol, no other appetizers are needed when using drugs and it was easier to feel good, it said.

The broadcaster added that this phenomenon is not common in all households of the "hermit kingdom." However, another source claimed that “not only are drug used recreationally, but also to those who are not feeling well.” Based on this, the radio station said that a new social atmosphere where non-drug users are pushed into taking drugs have appeared.

According to a defector’s testimony, one of the best women’s hospitals in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, secretly gave heroin to patients who suffered pain from surgery.

The price of drugs in the North is known to be cheap. “Although prices vary depending on the quality, 1 gram costs about 20,000 won,” the source was quoted as saying.