ADDICTS 'CHASING DRAGON' TO DEATH

The medical community is at a loss to explain why seven people are dead and
10 have suffered severe brain damage after smoking heroin.

Dr. John Blatherwick, the city's chief medical health officer, says B.C.'s
17 cases of "toxic leukoencephalopathy" could be the largest outbreak in the
world.

Heroin-induced toxic leukoencephalopathy is a condition where the white
matter of the brain is altered by exposure to a toxin.

Troubling Blatherwick, police and drug addicts is why so many people have
died or become ill from a method of administering heroin that has been
practised for years.

"It's a real mystery," said Blatherwick, noting only four cases were
identified in B.C. last year, when two people died.

The victims are men and women aged 23 to 47 who've used heroin for at least
four years and live in communities ranging from Surrey to the Okanagan.
Thirteen of the 17 cases are connected to Vancouver.

One case occurred in a correctional facility and another involved a U.S.
resident visiting B.C., said Blatherwick, pointing out the variety of users
and locations indicates heroin use is not just a Downtown Eastside problem.

"We need to get the message out that this is not just affecting people in
the Downtown Eastside, but people all over Vancouver and the Lower
Mainland."

When the Courier reported on the phenomenon in May, Blatherwick said it
hadn't been determined whether the culprit was the heroin, the substance
used to cut the drug or the aluminum foil used for smoking. Since then,
heroin seized in one of the cases turned up no evidence that would help
explain the deaths. The heroin was cut with dexedrine and caffeine, which
are fairly common on the streets, Blatherwick said.

"The only thing we can come up with is that it's got to do with inhaling
this stuff, and how those individuals react to it. The message is, don't use
heroin."

Heroin is smoked by heating the powder on a piece of tin or aluminum foil
over a flame. The resulting white smoke is inhaled, sometimes using a tube
or rolled foil cylinder. The practice is often called "chasing the dragon."

Former Vancouver police drug detective Robb McLaren, who retired on the
weekend after a 30-year career, said heroin smokers traditionally hide the
fact that they're addicts.

McLaren, who investigated one of the recent cases, said people who are
suddenly sleeping more, have let their hygiene go and lost interest in their
professions or activities, such as sports, could be smoking heroin.

"Basically, their whole life pattern takes a sharp right hand turn."

In many of the cases, he said, parents or friends of the victims didn't have
a clue they were smoking heroin, which unlike injection use, doesn't leave
track marks.

Chuck Parker, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said he
was unaware of the magnitude of the problem until contacted by the Courier.

Parker said he planned to immediately begin a postering campaign in the
Downtown Eastside to warn heroin smokers of the risks associated with the
age-old method.

"We've got to get the message out on this one for sure," Parker said.

Smoking heroin dates back to the Opium Wars in the early 1800s, when the
English shipped tons of opium-which heroin is derived from-from India into
China in exchange for manufactured goods and tea. Opium parlours
proliferated throughout China in the early part of the 19th century.

Opium dens were once popular in Vancouver's Chinatown and in Steveston, the
one-time fishing village in Richmond.