365 OVERDOSE DEATHS LAST YEAR SET GRIM NEW RECORD

B.C.'s grim tide of drug deaths has set a record.

In 1998, 365 people died of confirmed or suspected overdoses, B.C. chief
coroner Larry Campbell said yesterday.

"That is one a day," he said. "This is the worst year ever."

The previous record of 356 deaths was set in 1993.

Campbell blames the glut of drugs on the street and their relatively low price.

The price of cocaine has dropped from $250 a gram a few years ago to $100.
The purity of heroin has gone from three to six per cent several years ago
to 40 to 50 per cent today.

Campbell said cocaine has surpassed heroin as the primary death drug. And
he said users aren't always sold the drug they think they are buying.

"In many cases the people don't know what they are getting," he said. "They
are getting cocaine when they think they are getting heroin and vice
versa."

So far this year 10 people have died -- the same number as in the same
period last year -- including a 38-year-old man who had a cardiac arrest
Monday.

Police linked his death to a pair of non-fatal overdoses where people
bought drugs in city clubs.

Const. Anne Drennan warned drug users to take care: "If you are going to do
this, don't be alone, so if something goes wrong there will be someone
there to help you."

John Turvey of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society said the
record level of overdoses and OD deaths mirrors the experience worldwide.

He said the opening of borders in Europe and North America has allowed a
freer flow of drugs.

And, he said, "people aren't exercising due caution." At today's purity,
"you don't have a lot of time. It is over in seconds."

Turvey, a reformed drug addict and prostitute who now works with street
people, said society must do more to give young people accurate information
about drug use instead of relying on slogans such as "Just Say No," which
kids tune out.

He wants people to know, for example, that mixing cocaine and alcohol can
be deadly.

He also wants people who are thinking about trying drugs that cocaine and
heroin are viciously addictive.

"Now it is seen as kind of groovy and it has status, and that is crap," he said.

"We have to give people straight information -- you are either going to
drop dead or get addicted. And if you think being addicted is fun you've
got your head up your ass."

And in Vancouver, he said, if you acquire an injection-drug addiction you
stand a 25-per-cent chance of catching the AIDS virus.