Pubdate: Wed, 12 Feb 2014
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2014 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Davene Jeffrey

HEROIN TREND HASN'T HIT HALIFAX

Street drug rampant in bigger cities but pills main problem here

The street drug that likely felled actor Philip Seymour Hoffman early
this month has never had much of a presence in Halifax, police say.

"Historically, heroin has never been a big hit around Halifax,"
regional police spokesman Const. Pierre Bourdages said Tuesday. "Let's
hope it stays that way."

Annually, Halifax police record over 1,000 incidents of people being
caught in possession of some form of illicit drug. Only two or three
of those cases involve heroin, the officer said.

Hoffman's body was discovered in his New York City apartment on Feb.
2. He had a needle in his arm and several bags of heroin were
discovered in the home.

Last week, Bloomberg News reported that heroin use and overdoses have
been on the upswing in New York City as the price of the opiate has
dropped. Its purity and availability on the street have risen as
countries that produce the drug have increased production.

At the same time, the U.S. has been trying to crack down on
prescription drug abuse, causing some opiate addicts to turn to heroin
for their fix, the report said.

At Direction 180, an organization devoted to helping people with
opiate additions, executive director Cindy MacIsaac agrees with
Bourdages that heroin is not an issue in Halifax.

"Heroin is rampant in Vancouver, as well as Montreal - the larger
cities," MacIsaac said.

But for Halifax addicts, pills have always been the drug of choice,
she said.

"At least with (prescription) pills, you know what you are
getting."

There was some heroin in the city during the 1970s, says Diane Bailey
of the Mainline Needle Exchange, but mostly in the possession of
individuals who brought it in from elsewhere for their own use.

"It wasn't something that ever really stayed," Bailey
said.

Occasionally, the Canada Border Services Agency has seized large
quantities of heroin at the Halifax port, but the drugs weren't bound
for the city.

In 2011, the agency announced it had intercepted a shipment of the
drug worth $2 million and in 2008 it seized 28 kilograms of heroin at
the port.

Shaun Black at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre's
addiction prevention and treatment services is not worried that heroin
dealers are about to set up shop in Halifax any time soon.

"I just think that we are just way too small a population base," Black
said.

If the drug were to make its way onto the Halifax scene, Bailey said
she'd likely be one of the first to hear about it.

The people who rely on the needle exchange speak freely about their
experiences, she said.
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