OVERDOSE DEATHS UP DESPITE INJECTION SITE

Despite the opening of North America's first legal injection site in
the Downtown Eastside in September 2003, three more Vancouverites died
of drug overdoses from January to September this year compared to the
same period in 2003.

Preliminary statistics from the B.C. Coroners Service reveal that 44
people died of a drug overdose from January to September-an increase
from the 41 who died in the same period in 2003.

Though the increase is marginal, and considerably lower than the
hundreds who died of overdoses in the mid-1990s, the number of deaths
still concerns Donald Macpherson, the city's drug policy
coordinator.

"It's a lot of people," Macpherson said. "For a city our size, when
you compare it to some European cities like Amsterdam, Zurich,
Frankfurt, I'd want to be down around 20. Of course, 20 is too many,
too. One is too many, but we really should have lower numbers."

Macpherson said the increase does not mean the injection site failed
to reduce the number of drug deaths. Since Insite opened Sept. 22,
2003 near Main and Hastings, no one has died at the site, he said.

Macpherson said the injection site is a "rather small intervention
into a very large problem." He said other factors have reduced drug
deaths, including improved access to treatment, educating addicts
about testing their drugs and the dangers of injecting alone and
counselling.

"Nowhere, not even in Europe [where other injection sites exists], do
they say they can prove that an injection site led to an overall
decrease in overdoses in their population."

What's missing from overdose death statistics, however, is the high
number of addicts afflicted with a terminal disease, such as HIV-AIDs,
who did not die of a drug overdose.

When analyzing why 44 people have died of a drug overdose this year
compared to 74 in 2001, Macpherson said deaths of people with HIV-AIDS
could mean fewer people are using drugs.

"It's a difficult one _ but a lot of high-risk people have
died."

Vancouver Police Department Insp. Ken Frail, a long-time Downtown
Eastside police officer, said the prevalence of crack and the number
of addicts who smoke it rather than inject heroin could also be a
reason. He said no "quality control" exists with drugs addicts are
using and high purity levels of a drug can easily kill a person, such
as happened in the 1990s.

"Unfortunately, we keep getting new addicts. I suppose if we'd like to
see fewer drug deaths, if we did more public education-not just police
doing education, but our education system doing the education-then
perhaps that would have more of an impact..."

The coroners service statistics don't reveal where the 44 deaths
occurred, the type of drug used, gender of the deceased or the
person's age. Traditionally, drug deaths have been caused by heroin,
cocaine or a combination of the drugs with alcohol. An evaluation
released in September on Insite showed heroin was the drug of choice
by addicts, followed by cocaine. From March to August 2004, 72 addicts
at the site overdosed a combination of 107 times.

"There were a range of signs and symptoms that were interpreted as an
overdose with the most common being slow breathing, failure to respond
to commands, and being slumped in the chair," stated the B.C. Centre
for Excellence in HIV-AIDS report.

"The most common interventions were the administration of oxygen,
calling 911 and giving Narcan. Only in one case was CPR required, and
only three cases had an airway inserted."