Pubdate: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Mike Howell, Staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek