'HOT DRUG' SYSTEM WOULD WARN USERS

VANCOUVER - Police are working with community groups and other
organizations to set up a system to quickly warn drug users if contaminated
or highly potent drugs begin showing up on the streets.

The announcement about the planned system comes after five people died of
suspected heroin overdoses over the weekend.

Police had initially sent out a warning about "hot heroin" being on the
streets after three drug users were found dead of apparent overdoses.

On Wednesday, Sgt. Anne Drennan said police have discovered that two other
people who had been using heroin also died over the weekend.

A 44-year-old man and a 47-year-old man were both found dead in a rooming
house in the Downtown Eastside.

Drennan would not give specific details about the two, but said that police
believe the deaths may be a result of contaminated or highly-concentrated
heroin.

On Wednesday, Drennan repeated her warning, urging drug addicts to be
extremely cautious.

"If you must use the drug please consider going to the safe injection site
to use the drug in a facility that is monitored by health professionals,"
Drennan said at a press conference. "Please also be very much aware of who
you are buying your drugs from," she added.

Drennan said police have worked with community leaders, the fire
department, Vancouver Coastal Health and others to get the message out
about the possibility of bad heroin being sold on the street.

She added that police had already been working to put together a permanent
"fan-out system" that would make it easier for information to be spread to
addicts when dangers, such as "hot heroin" arise.

"Right now it appears that we [the police] are the main source initially
for that kind of information because our officers are called to every
overdose," she said, explaining in general terms how the system will work
and adding that it may have certain parallels to the Amber Alert system
used to help speed searches for missing children.