VANCOUVER HEROIN DEATH TOLL RISES TO SIX IN SIX DAYS

VANCOUVER -- After six heroin overdose deaths in six days, a seventh man
was clinging to life in a Vancouver hospital yesterday, the victim of what
police warn is a killer batch of the drug.

Police first issued public warnings to heroin users about the bad batch
after three people died of overdoses last weekend. Since then, officials
became aware of three other deaths: two men in their 40s who died together
in a Downtown Eastside hotel room last Friday, and a 40-year-old woman
whose body was found yesterday in the same area.

"It's a big concern for us," said Constable Howard Chow. "We don't know if
this is just the tip of the iceberg."

The number of overdoses in the past week is equal to what Vancouver saw in
an average two-month period last year.

The seventh case is that of a man whom a panhandler spotted in convulsions
at the corner of Kingsway and Clark Drive at about 7:20 a.m. yesterday. The
panhandler called 911 from a payphone and paramedics administered Narcan, a
drug that blocks opiates in the body, to the victim before taking him to
Vancouver General Hospital.

It is not clear whether the heroin is laced with a toxic substance or is
unusually potent, because toxicology reports and an analysis of heroin from
the street will not be available for weeks.

This is not the first time Vancouver's drug addicts have been in such
danger, said Judy McGuire, executive director of the Downtown Eastside
Youth Activities Society, which has operated a needle-exchange program for
14 years.

"In 1993, what was then called China white, a really powerful heroin, hit
the street," she said. Street heroin went from 30-per-cent pure to as much
as 90-per-cent pure, she added, causing 24 overdoses in one week.

A few years ago, she said, drug users taking speedballs -- a mixture of
heroin and cocaine -- found the cocaine wore off quickly, leaving them
vulnerable to a too-powerful heroin high, and some users died.

"As desperately bad as it is that six people have overdosed, the reality is
that compared to what it could be in the same period of time, it's obvious
the word is getting out."

Staff at Vancouver's supervised injection site cannot test heroin, but can
provide medical aid to the users, whose total injections number roughly 650
a day.

The city needs to go further to protect addicts outside the site by
regulating the drugs in a way similar to the North American Opiate
Medication Initiative, said Zarina Mulla, a social planner with Vancouver's
drug policy program.

NAOMI is a clinical trial of prescribed heroin for addicts, which is under
way in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

The study is modelled after programs in Europe that try to reduce harm, she
said.

"We've been saying that these are very dangerous drugs, too dangerous to be
left in the hands of criminals," Ms. Mulla said.

Ms. McGuire said a NAOMI-like system would avoid two major problems of
street drugs. "[Heroin] is criminalized, so [addicts] can end up being part
of the criminal underclass whether that's their inclination or not. They
don't have a choice."

The other problem is that drugs often get "stepped on" -- mixed with other
substances -- so dealers can make more money, she said. "If you take the
drug, you literally don't know what you're getting."

Police are warning addicts of the current danger through their agencies and
through the news media, and police officers on their beats are spreading
the word.

There were 64 deaths from illicit drugs in Vancouver last year, up from 50
in 2003, but down from a high of 191 in 1999.