'LACED' HEROIN CLAIMS THREE MORE ADDICTS

Other Users Search For Potent Drug Despite Police Warning

Extremely potent -- or "laced" -- heroin has claimed three more lives,
bringing the number of overdose deaths in Vancouver to six since Friday.

A 40-year-old woman was found overdosed in a Downtown Eastside hotel room
yesterday afternoon at around 3:30 p.m.

Two men, aged 44 and 47, were found dead together Friday in a rooming house
in the same area. The men had apparently overdosed together.

Two men and a woman died from bad heroin on Saturday and Sunday.

"If you must use heroin, please go to the safe-injection site," said
Vancouver police Sgt. Anne Drennan.

If possible, Drennan advised addicts, find a trusted dealer.

Police have spread the word about the laced drugs through various
street-level agencies.

But that warning is having an unintended result, said Ann Livingston,
program coordinator with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

"Everyone's looking for it," she said. "[Users] are all saying, 'Where can
we get some?' That's what addicts say."

Livingston said she's heard rumours the fatal substance is actually
powdered methadone -- heroin cut with a toxic substance. She advises
addicts to "taste" -- or inject very small quantities -- first before
shooting the entire needle.

"Be careful," she said. "I'm worried it's not heroin."

The B.C. Coroner's service is now testing the victims' blood to determine
what was in their systems, and some samples of heroin have been sent to
Health Canada labs for analysis.

The overdoses suggest that B.C.'s estimated 22,000 injection drug users
need more safe-injection sites, Livingston said, where they can use the
drugs in a controlled environment.

Livingston's ultimate goal is to see safe heroin made legally available to
addicts.

Other than the two men found together in the same place, there is nothing
to link the six fatalities except for the fact all were intravenous heroin
users.

Drennan said it would be "almost a fluke" to track down the exact source of
the problematic batch.

There is no information indicating that dealers are selling the "hot
heroin" at discount prices in an effort to hook more users before jacking
the cost back up.