DRUG DEATHS ON RISE, POLICE SAY

Drug Addicts Are Dying To Get High In Orillia.

Though little reported, police this week acknowledged that numerous
hardcore users of crack cocaine, heroin and even pharmaceutical-grade
drugs are being found dead in the Sunshine City every year.

"There are definitely several deaths annually that are attributed to
various types of drugs," OPP Insp. Jim Szarka said yesterday. "We do
investigate many of those."

Popular drugs include crack cocaine, heroin and prescription pain
killers, swiped from local pharmacies.

"If taken in too high a quantity, they can be lethal," Szarka added.

Of increasing concern to police is the rising abuse of a skin patch
known as fentanyl, intended for sufferers of chronic pain.

"It is supposed to be a three-day-release-type patch." said Det. Sgt.
Paul McCrickard, of the Orillia Crime Unit. "But they are taking
hypodermic needles, drawing the medicine out of the patch and
injecting it. They are getting all of the medicine you would normally
get over three days instantly."

According to McCrickard, police have investigated deaths that
resulted directly from over-use of fentanyl patches.

"Others are breaking the membrane and just rubbing the medicine on
their skin," he said. "But you have no idea how much your system can handle."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a public-health
advisory warning of the dangers associated with the powerful
painkiller following overdose-related deaths south of the border.

The advisory stresses that the patches are intended only for
individuals suffering chronic pain that is not relieved by other,
less-potent drugs.

Symptoms of an overdose include troubled breathing, fatigue,
sedation, dizziness, confusion, and an inability to think or walk.
"It can be extremely dangerous and, obviously, fatal," McCrickard said.

OPP in recent months reported a landmark seizure of crack cocaine
from a local home, arresting a 32-year-old Mississauga man and
charging him with possession for the purpose of trafficking,
possession of marijuana and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Police believe the suspect was supplying the drug to a region that
included Orillia, Midland, Bracebridge, and Huntsville.

"We are certainly not isolated or unique from any other centre,
whether it be the misuse of prescription drugs, or the overdose of
illegal substances," said McCrickard, who has witnessed the impacts first hand.

"You see it all the time, somebody who has gotten hooked and it
completely rips their life apart within a year."

Added Szarka: "There have definitely been cases in which drugs are
the direct cause of death. There are so many negative spinoff factors
from drug issues in this city. Even when it isn't a death
investigation, there is the taxation on the health system."

Many drugs, legal or otherwise, can dramatically alter a person's
heart rate and lead to cardiac arrest, warned Const. Sean McTeague.

"A drug can affect two different people differently," he said.

"For one person it could cause a racing heart and increase the risk
(of death). They are so unpredictable."