ADDICTS DON'T FEAR THREAT OF BAD HEROIN

VANCOUVER (CP) - Richard Alexander loves his heroin too much to worry that
a cheaper, more potent form of the drug has been linked to a surge in
overdose deaths in British Columbia.

"I don't plan to quit," said Alexander, 46, sitting in a drop-in centre for
injection drug users in the citys skid row.

"I don't think there is any method you could take me through to make me
quit," the thin, grizzled man said Friday.

His sentiments were shared by seven others sitting around a table at the
centre. The attitude confounds public health efforts to curb overdoses.

Such deaths have been a sad reality for some time in British Columbia,
where they've been considered at times a leading cause of death in some
population groups.

But officials are reporting that newly competitive heroin traffickers are
selling cheaper, more potent drugs. Bad heroin led to the overdose deaths
of 201 people across British Columbia in the past six months, a 37 per cent
increase over 147 overdose deaths during the same period last year.

In Vancouver, 116 died. Thats up from 78 last year. The numbers are
climbing in other cities too. Kamloops has had 12 heroin deaths so far this
year compared with two in 1997 and Kelowna has had four, up from just one.

Vancouvers ground zero is the citys eastside, notorious for some of highest
levels of HIV in the developed world. The outbreak has been linked to the
widespread use of injection drugs, especially heroin and cocaine.

Provincial officials are spending millions to fight addiction, including
$13 million a year from the Families Ministry, but the medical director for
Vancouver-Richmond Health Board is calling for more spending to deal with a
"gaping hole" in treatment programs.

"You need treatment and resources so that if and when someone is willing to
get off a drug, there is an opportunity to do so," said Dr. John
Blatherwick.

Former addict Bud Osborne, now a member of the regional health board, spoke
Friday about decriminalization and testing street heroin to make sure its
safe.

Addicts don't care about headlines and health-board warnings because they
are in love with their drugs, said Osborne.

"No drug addict is going to think about the risk," Alexander agreed.
"He's going to use. That's what a drug addict does."

Alexander is a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a group
that has proposed first-aid training for addicts so they can help those who
overdose and more telephones in dozens of rooming houses dotting the area
so addicts can contact paramedics.

Four of seven people at the table - including Alexander - raise their hands
when asked if theyve ever overdosed.

He overdosed on heroin in 1990, waking up a little wiser, he said.

Karen Lagimodiere overdosed too.

"I thought I was taking coke, but they sold me heroin instead."

Bryan Alleyne, 39, is sympathetic.

"That is the problem on the street. A lot of people think theyre buying
cocaine, and theyre actually getting heroin," he said.

"And if you think youre shooting a quarter gram of cocaine, and it's
heroin, it is going to drop you."

Alleyne used to use coke. Now he mixes cocaine and heroin into speedballs.

"If your tolerance is high, you're not going to overdose, but a lot of
people don't have a high tolerance.

"A lot of them just go and die."

(c) The Canadian Press, 1998