CORONERS SERVICE WARNS OF POTENT STREET HEROIN

VANCOUVER - The BC Coroners Service has warned of a spike in drug
overdose deaths resulting from potent heroin and is urging users to
seek help from services such as Vancouver's supervised injection site
to protect themselves.

"Drug users should never be alone when ingesting drugs, and, where
possible, should use available community services such as Insite or
needle exchanges, where access to medical care is available," the
agency said Thursday in an information bulletin.

The agency says there were more than 20 cases of heroin-related
overdoses in the first four months of this year - more than double
the amount in the same period in 2010. The drug is also believed to
be a factor in several other recent cases for which toxicology
results are pending.

The majority of deaths have been in the Lower Mainland, regional
coroner Vincent Stancato said Thursday.

"We're seeing these fatalities in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Surrey,
Burnaby, Vancouver - we're seeing them generally in the Lower
Mainland," Mr. Stancato said, adding that five deaths have been in
the city of Vancouver.

Kelowna RCMP on Tuesday linked the deaths of two men, both in their
20s, to heroin use and warned that "toxic" heroin was likely being
sold in the region.

The Vancouver-based Insite clinic is the only sanctioned, supervised
injection site in the country, and is operated by Vancouver Coastal
Health and PHS Community Services Society. It was formed in part in
response to a wave of drug overdose deaths in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The supervised injection site opened in 2003 and, for the past few
years, has fought a legal battle to stay open in the face of
opposition from the federal Conservative government. Two B.C. court
rulings have supported the facility on jurisdictional and
constitutional grounds.

Next week, the Supreme Court of Canada is slated to hear the federal
government's appeal of a B.C. court ruling that has allowed the
clinic to remain open.

The warning on heroin-related deaths, and the recommendation to drug
users to go to Insite, is not related to the pending court case, Mr.
Stancato said, adding that the agency based its warning on its own
provincewide records and information from the RCMP.

"This message was strictly based on the statistics that we were
seeing and the information that police provided to us about the
current level of potency of street-level heroin," he said.

RCMP tests showed heroin dealt to users in some areas is at least
twice as potent as usual.

There have been no overdose deaths at Insite since it began operating
in 2003, PHS spokesman Mark Townsend said on Thursday.

In an average month, Insite staff conduct 20 to 25 "overdose
interventions" - providing oxygen, medication or other assistance to
drug users who are at risk of overdosing. In the past 30 days, the
facility has logged 36 such interventions, Mr. Townsend said, adding
that it is not known whether the increase is related to the stronger
street drugs mentioned in the coroners' bulletin.