They call it heroin chic: the images of thin white wasted teenagers spread across the pages of Vogue, Elle, Arena and Marie Claire, which are used to sell high fashion to the young. But there was nothing edifying or chic about the row that has exploded in the international modelling world, as one of the industry's top agents declared he was suing the blonde supermodel Amy Wesson for $4 million because, he alleged, she was frequently too stoned to work.

Michael Flutie, head of Company Management, who represented the model for 2 1/2 years, said he had spent the last six months terrified he would knock on Wesson's door and find her lying alone and dead.

"I was scared that I would go round to see why she hadn't turned up for a shoot and find her dead," he said. "I tried to get her into detox, I tried everything. But now it's time for tough love. I am very concerned about her life."

Flutie said the problems started a year ago when editors began phoning him to complain that Wesson, who charges between $10,000 and $25,000 a day, was turning up incapable of working. "She was either exhausted and needing to sleep or completely stoned," he said. On one occasion she could barely stand up.

As her behaviour became more erratic, Flutie said he started taking the brunt. "On a typical bad day, she would be phoning me at midnight screaming at me that I hadn't told her about a shoot, or claiming that I had refused to give her boyfriend her phone number.

"She would abuse and accuse my staff of things and we were having problems maintaining a professional relationship. I have lost a lot of money over this."

Flutie said Wesson had refused his offer of help and then left Company Management claiming she had financial problems. The next day she signed on with a rival agency, Marilyn Inc.

Carolyn Kramer, a spokeswoman for Marilyn Inc, which has represented Wesson for two weeks, said the model arrived in Milan last Wednesday and was preparing for the new season.

Although she declined to comment on the accusations of drugtaking, the spokeswoman said: "Amy is fine. She's been shortlisted for Versace, Prada, Jil Sander and Gucci among others. She's working for la creme de la creme of the campaigns. Calvin Klein, Italian Vogue and every show from London, to Rome, Milan, Paris and New York."

Kramer admitted Flutie's lawsuit was very bad publicity for the model, whom she referred to as a "$50,000-a-day girl". She added that Wesson would be seeking legal advice on how to refute the claim. Wesson is claiming her contract with Company was invalid.

Asked if drugs were prevalent in the modelling business, Kramer, whose agency also represents Helena Christiansen and Carla Bruni, replied: "It worries me on a national level. I have friends in Wall Street where drugs are prominent right now. Doctors are doing drugs, the fashion industry should not be singled out as the only business with a prevailing drug problem."

But Flutie, who has been working with the Council of Fashion Designers to draw up guidelines to help deal with the problem, said drugs, often taken to keep weight down, were rife.

"Girls come into cities like New York or Paris or London and they can't cope. They're earning $10,000 a day; imagine working in an environment like that?

"People are in denial about the extent of the problem in the business. Amy is in denial and I am worried because we are talking about her life."

Last June, after the death from a heroin overdose of Davide Sorrenti, a young photographer, President Clinton attacked the fashion industry for glorifying heroin and using waif-like models with black smudged eyes to appeal to youngsters.

"It's destructive, it's not beautiful, it is ugly," he said. "It is not about art, it's about life and death."

Shortly afterwards the fashion designer Donna Karan issued a statement saying the industry needed to take responsibility for the images it was creating and "question if we're in any way participating or supporting a drug culture, however unconscious our role may be".

Although the Duchess of Windsor coined fashion's underlying maxim that "one can never be too rich or too thin", the latest vogue in heroin chic appeared in the mid-1990s, spearheaded by a new generation of young photographers impressed by the work of photo-journalists such as Larry Clark and Nan Goldin.

Anxious to break away from the airbrushed artificiality of most fashion imagery, they began using super-thin models like Kate Moss who would often be pictured lying on seedy motel beds. It was high fashion in low-life settings and it sparked the trend for grunge fashion.

"We must inform the public about how endemic the problem is," Flutie said. "We all have a responsibility here."