RCMP CALLED FOR DRUG INCIDENTS

Nearly dying wasn't enough of an incentive to turn a young Burnaby
woman around in one of a series of bad drug reactions on one weekend.

Her heart stopped after she overdosed on cocaine but neither the woman
nor her two friends would help police later.

A man had called a Burnaby woman at around 1 a.m. Feb. 26 to say her
daughter had overdosed on drugs and he was taking the young woman and
two friends to the Holdom SkyTrain station.

The mother drove there right away and saw a blue Acura with two men,
whom she didn't know, stop and let off the three young women - one of
whom went into cardiac arrest.

They called an ambulance, which took her to Burnaby Hospital where
doctors pulled her through.

Police came to the hospital and talked to the three - two Burnaby
residents, 18 and 20 years old, and a 19-year-old woman from Vancouver
- - but "none were cooperative," according to Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre,
spokesperson for the Burnaby RCMP, in a press release.

They would only say they'd been out drinking and met a male
acquaintance, eventually ending up at a Burnaby apartment where they
took some cocaine.

The next thing they remembered was coming to the hospital.

Another young Burnaby woman came close to dying from drugs earlier on
the same weekend.

The 22-year-old had gone out with friends to a pub on Feb. 25 when she
began to act strangely and then became unresponsive.

Her two friends decided to call a cab to take her home and went with
the woman, but she soon got worse and then lost consciousness.

When police arrived around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, her friends were drunk
but gave a few details, although they couldn't remember the type and
amount of alcohol she'd drunk, nor whom she'd been talking to.

However, they did tell police that she had taken the drug known as 'G'
in the past.

She was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital and was in stable condition
by the next morning.

Gamma hydroxybutyrate is known as the date rape drug and either taken
voluntarily or placed in someone's drink without them knowing.

Most commonly called just G, its other street names include GHB,
liquid E, Fantasy, Everclear and liquid ecstasy - although it is not
the same as the drug ecstasy.

Reactions range from nausea, headaches and drowsiness through
dizziness, amnesia, vomiting and up to respiratory problems, loss of
consciousness and/or muscle control and death.

The effects are worsened when combined with alcohol or other
drugs.

Within a few hours of the young woman being taken to hospital, police
were called to deal with other overdose reactions.

Shortly after 3:30 a.m., police were called because a woman thought
she was going to die after taking too much heroin.

She was taken to Burnaby Hospital, as was a 46-year-old man who,
around 5 a.m., locked himself in a convenience store and refused to
leave.

Police forced their way in and found the man, soaked in sweat and
delusional.

He told them he had injected heroin and done cocaine.

Later on that evening, police arrested a 56-year-old Burnaby resident
after an officer saw him drive through a stop sign at Marine Drive and
Gilley.

The man was obviously drunk and, when the officer took alcohol
readings, had three times the legal level of alcohol in his blood.