LETHAL HEROIN TO BE TESTED TO FIND DEALERS

All drugs seized by Vancouver police will be tested immediately to help
investigators determine who is selling what is believed to be a lethal
batch of heroin responsible for seven overdose deaths since Aug. 19.

An analysis of a drug normally takes weeks or months, but police are
working with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to have drugs tested
within a day.

Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander of the Downtown Eastside and eastern
portion of the city, said his officers have been ordered to seize drugs
wherever and whenever possible.

"We're aggressively looking for a sample of this hot heroin, and our goal
is to find out whether this is purity or an additive to what's causing
these fatalities," Rolls told the Courier. "When we do that, we're going to
immediately release results."

Police issued a public warning this week after four people died last
weekend of an overdose of drugs. Police believe the deaths, including the
three that followed this week, involve heroin.

Five men and two women are the victims, but police have not released their
names or ages. They were discovered in the Downtown Eastside and East Side
in rooming houses, hotels and on the street.

The deaths have alarmed not only police but drug users and various health
service organizations. The spike is an unpleasant reminder of the 417
overdose deaths that occurred in B.C. in 1998.

As of July 31 this year, the B.C. Coroners Service preliminary statistics
show 31 people died of a drug overdose in Vancouver-10 fewer than for the
same period last year.

The police's public warning is criticized by Ann Livingston, project
coordinator of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Livingston
questions how police know-without receiving toxicology reports on the seven
victims-the cause is "hot heroin."

She said many longtime heroin addicts will search out the "hot heroin" to
get a better high. The warning should have simply been that heroin was
involved in the deaths, she said, noting many addicts are also addicted to
crack cocaine and booze.

"It's quite rare that it's one thing," she said, noting the rumours on the
street suggest the lethal drug is powdered methadone. "Most overdoses are
from poly drug use."

Police, however, argue evidence collected at the scenes of the seven deaths
leads them to believe heroin caused the deaths. The warning was issued to
save lives, Rolls said.

"We owe it to the community to make them aware when we have something like
this happen," he said. "There's no question that we're going to be
providing that information. It's very unfortunate that if there's something
that's completely poisonous out there that people would run to get it. It
doesn't really make a lot of sense to me."

Added Rolls: "This is unique for a police department to go to this length,
and it's questionable whether it's a police department responsibility, but
that's what we're going to do, regardless."

Police have also reversed the department's overdose policy, in which
officers only attend overdose deaths, or be present at an overdose if
public safety is endangered. They are now responding to all overdoses.

The policy was created to quell fears of drug addicts who believe that a
911 call to get help for themselves, or a friend who has overdosed, could
lead to an arrest.

The deaths come one month before the second anniversary of Insite, the
city's injection site at 139 East Hastings. An average of 600 people a day
use the site.

Police are working with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to obtain
samples of heroin from addicts using the facility. Heroin is still the drug
of choice at the facility, said Viviana Zanocco, spokesperson for the
health authority.

Since Insite opened Sept. 22, 2003, no one has died at the site. An
evaluation released in September 2004 on Insite showed heroin was the
addicts' drug of choice, followed by cocaine.

From March to August 2004, 72 addicts overdosed at the site a combination
of 107 times. None of these overdoses resulted in death. Only one case
required CPR.

The seven deaths this week occurred in the 1500-block Graveley, 404 Abbott,
the 4500-block Picton, West Pender near Main Street, the 1400-block
Kingsway and two at 160 East Hastings.