DRUG BUST

It's the kind of drug seizure the Thunder Bay Tri-Forces Drug Unit has
never made before.

Two people face charges after ten grams of heroin and fifty three
prescription pills were found Thursday night. Detective-Sergeant Jim
Graham says in his six and a half years with the drug unit, he's never
seen a heroin seizure in the city. Graham says it could be a sign
prescription drug abusers may be escalating to heroin.

Meanwhile, the street use of prescription drugs is on the increase.
Alarm bells were raised after two Timmins youths died last week after
consuming pills containing time-released morphine. Tannice
Fletcher-Steckhouse is with Thunder Bay's Lakeview clinic, a local
methadone centre. She says the use of opiates like oxycontin and
percocet, are on the rise in Thunder Bay, even amongst youth, who may
view it as the new party drug.

Lakeview services over one hundred people and has a waiting list of
116 others. Steckhouse says there isn't enough education about
prescription drugs in the city. The Drug Awareness Committee will be
speaking to local high school students throughout November, which is
drug awareness month.