`MORE TO DIE' AS EXPERTS BLAME TOO-PURE HEROIN

More drug addicts are going to die, even though the batch of heroin which
claimed seven lives in Dublin is now almost certainly finished. That is the
opinion of the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy, who has also
worked in Glasgow, where another batch of heroin claimed 12 lives. She
believes there has to be ``a common denomination''.

``My personal view is that the [heroin] batch that caused the deaths is
finished possibly injected weeks ago. We're into damage limitation now.
There's no point grabbing heroin off dealers and analysing it now.

``The Glasgow experience stopped in a two-to-three-week time frame.

``People who are going to die are still out there. The only advice I can
give is to get treatment ... I really don't know what's causing it. One
thought is that it has been cut down with something very acidic.

``Because we don't have an organism, what can the doctors treat it with? A
broad-spectrum antibiotic is the best, I suppose,'' she said.

Dr Cassidy, speaking at a conference organised by the Nurses Addiction
Network, was critical of the poor funding by the Government and said six
months can elapse before toxicology results are returned from cash-starved
laboratories.

The analysis of samples here has not yet begun, and even the exact number of
deaths from addiction is not known. Dr Cassidy, however, carried out 43
post-mortems into the deaths of known addicts between October 1998 and
September 1999. Some medical experts believe the recent spate of deaths
could be due to a very pure batch of the drug, and not contaminated heroin.

Fourteen heroin users 11 males, three females have been admitted to
hospitals in Dublin with unidentified severe illnesses so far this month.
Seven of these have died: six males; one female. Most of the cases occurred
in St James's Hospital and many of the patients came from the Crumlin area
of Dublin. But the problem has spread, with other hospitals reporting
similar cases.

``These 14 cases appear to meet the case definition of the recent Glasgow
cluster of heroin deaths,'' said a spokeswoman for the Eastern Regional
Health Authority. The cases in Scotland had ``large abscesses and/or severe
inflammation around the injection site which extensively destroyed muscle
and tissue close to the site''.

The Glasgow Health Board told the Sunday Independent that despite
``exhaustive tests'' they had yet to find ``any heroin contaminant''.
Experts now suspect the 27 admissions and 12 deaths there may have been
caused by very pure heroin.

The spokeswoman said heroin found in the areas where the deaths occurred
needed greater amounts of citric acid to dissolve it, indicating it was
unusually strong.

Samples of bodily fluids from the deceased here have been sent to the
toxicology laboratory in Beaumont Hospital for analysis.

``We have yet to start our analysis,'' said laboratory consultant Dr Bill
Tormey, ``but from what I know the researchers in Glasgow have found nothing
else [but heroin] in their tests. So it's more likely to be pure heroin.
Those who died probably inadvertently overdosed with very strong heroin.''

He said he did not believe claims of rat poison being used.

Dr Jim Donovan of the State Forensic Laboratory said that tests of heroin
recently seized in the Crumlin area ``did not show anything unusual''.

But he said that none of the samples came from those who had died. He was
very sceptical of contamination claims.