HEROIN USERS WARNED ABOUT DANGER OF TIN FOIL

While not conclusive, a possible link between smoking heroin and a brain
disease known as leucoencephalopathy has a Kelowna neurologist warning local
users to be careful.

"At this point, it's only an association but at least they should be aware
of it," said Dr. Barry Jones.

"If that causes them to mend their ways, so much the better."

Jones said there is currently a patient in Kelowna General Hospital
suspected of having the condition.

That patient is one of 19 reported since 2002, including 15 this year.

Most of the cases are confined to the Lower Mainland but have shown up in
people from 19 to 51 from within various racial groups.

Almost 50 per cent of those patients have died from the condition and Jones
said the prognosis for recovery for the Kelowna patient is low.

Smoking heroin from tinfoil is a practice known as chasing the dragon.

"Leucoencephalopathy has only been diagnosed in people who sniff the fumes,"
said Jones.

"We haven't seen it in IV drug users."

What's not known is whether the disease has been caused by the burning
tinfoil or adulterants within the heroin itself.

"That's the big question they're trying to answer," said Jones.

"This connection has only been recognized in the last couple of years."

Health officials in the Lower Mainland are working with the Vancouver Police
Department to try to obtain samples of the heroin smoked by the victims
there so chemical analysis can be conducted on it.

Jones said he plans to talk to the patient and family of the local victim to
see if it's possible to obtain a heroin sample which would be sent to the
B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

"It might help them be able to put two and two together," Jones added.

Leucoencephalopathy causes victims to lose their sense of balance, and have
difficulty speaking plus muscle weakness.

Victims may also behave inappropriately or be unaware of their surroundings.

The provincial medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall issued a
province-wide alert to all neurologists last Friday about a connection
between leucoencephalopathy and heroin use.

Kendall urged doctors to notify Dr. Lorne Clearsky, a community medicine
resident at the University of British Columbia, if they suspect one of their
patients may have the condition.