Pubdate: Fri, 26 Aug 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Matthew Ramsey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?132 (Heroin Overdose)

POLICE HUNTING SOURCE OF 'HOT' HEROIN

Dealer May Not Have Mixed Batch Well Enough

Police are reaching out to junkies for help to find whoever is selling a 
suspected bad batch of heroin believed to have killed six people in six days.

The grim toll could rise to seven as a man fights for his life in hospital 
following an overdose yesterday morning. A binner found the unidentified 
man unconscious in a lane in the 1400-block Kingsway. Paramedics 
administered the opiate blocker narcan with some positive effect, but he 
was struggling to survive yesterday afternoon.

"We don't want to see anybody die," said Insp. John McKay of the citywide 
drug enforcement team. "Somebody knows [who's selling it]. We'd like to 
find out, because we'll prosecute them . . . I think we have a duty when we 
find out something like this is going on."

Dealers typically mix very pure heroin into other agents, such as powdered 
milk, so they can sell more, McKay said. The veteran officer suspects 
whoever cut this particular heroin didn't mix it well enough, leaving some 
strong enough to be fatal, fast.

"The deaths are occurring fairly quickly [after injection]," McKay noted.

Heroin addicts like 37-year-old Greg, a decade-long user who shot up in the 
Insite safe-injection facility on East Hastings yesterday, said the obvious 
danger of a bad hit isn't enough to dissuade hard-core users. Nor are 
warnings from police and agencies that work with addicts.

"When the word gets out there's good heroin, everyone wants to do it 
because it's cheaper. It's killing people, but we still want it," Greg said.

David, another injection-site user, said rumour on the street is the deadly 
batch is actually powdered methadone sold as heroin. Methadone is 
commercially available as a powder.

Dave has injected the opiate substitute before and says it didn't make him 
high fast enough.

"If it doesn't hit right away, we'll just slam another shot," he said.

Dave said the cumulative dose problem may be what killed two men shooting 
together in a rooming house Friday, another two men and a woman over the 
weekend and a woman found dead Wednesday. Four of the six were in the 
Downtown Eastside.

Toxicology tests on the victims' blood and tests of evidence found at the 
overdose scenes are not expected for at least two weeks.

McKay said it's not uncommon for dealers to cut their drugs with toxins. He 
recalled a batch of heroin mixed with powdered laundry detergent and crack 
cocaine showing up on the street earlier this summer that had been cooked 
up using diesel.

Anyone with information about the killer heroin is asked to call 
CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom