Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Contact: letters@tc.canwest.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481

POLICE WARN OF BAD DRUGS AFTER OVERDOSE JUMP

Jump In Overdoses Brings Bad-Drug Warning

Emergency personnel are reporting a spike in drug overdoses on
Victoria streets in the past week.

Police have no hard figures for the number of overdoses, but on
Saturday afternoon alone there were 10 calls.

"Usually we get the calls of erratic behaviour, sometimes violent
behavior," Victoria police Sgt. Grant Hamilton said, adding police
aren't attributing any deaths to the drug overdoses. "There have been
people hallucinating. There have been calls where we've had to
restrain people because they're combative."

Police aren't certain what drug is involved, but users believe some
people are overdosing on a mixture of cocaine and crystal meth.

"We haven't seized anything to test it," Hamilton said.

A month ago, Victoria police circulated notices warning drug users
about a dangerous mixture of heroin making the rounds on the street.
The heroin had been cut with the horse anesthetic ketamine.

Users, thinking they were injecting clean heroin, were experiencing
hallucinations that made them anxious, excitable and violent.

Police were being forced to wrestle with and often restrain users
before they could render aid.

Hamilton said at the time police based their warning on calls they
had received and anecdotal information from users. Testing since
conducted on those drugs found no ketamine.

"The testing we've got back hasn't found any ketamine yet. It's
basically been crystal meth and cocaine," he said.

About 2,000 intravenous drug users live in the capital region,
according to numbers cited in a Vancouver Island Health Authority
research proposal for supervised-injection sites earlier this year.

Police are working with the B.C. Ambulance Service, the Coroner's
Service and the VIHA to develop a protocol to get the word out when
bad drugs hit the streets, Hamilton said.

"So if we're seeing something or the coroner's service is seeing
something through their investigation that there's an increase in
drug overdoses, there will be a fan-out so we all know this is going on."