Pubdate: Fri, 02 Dec 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: John Bermingham and Stuart Hunter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

COCAINE OVERTAKING HEROIN AS TOP KILLER

Cocaine is B.C.'s new killer drug.

Deaths from cocaine use this year are set to reach 200, according to 
Dr. Stuart Huckin of the Provincial Toxicology Centre.

For the first time, cocaine deaths will exceed heroin deaths.

"This year, cocaine will become the leading cause of death among 
illicit drugs," Huckin said yesterday.

Dr. John Blatherwick, chief medical officer for the Vancouver Coastal 
Health Authority, confirmed that over the past five years the number 
of cocaine-related deaths has come close to exceeding the number of 
heroin-related deaths which peaked around 1993-94.

"We've been seeing cocaine [use] take over from heroin for almost 
five years -- there is no question it is the predominant drug," 
Blatherwick told The Province last night.

"I'm surprised it's been this long to get the death toll to overtake 
it as well."

But Blatherwick noted many drug deaths are not straightforward. He 
said drug cocktails washed down by alcohol are often the killers.

"There are very few pure deaths. Almost every death is a mixture of 
drugs and, in the vast majority, alcohol plays a role," said 
Blatherwick. "The drug overcomes the respiratory system and usually 
it is the alcohol on top of that that sedates them enough that they 
just can't kick out of it.

"They just put the person into a slow [comatose state] and friends 
don't recognize -- particularly when combined with alcohol -- that 
the person has stopped breathing."

Blatherwick added many people who overdose on heroin are 
resuscitated, while it's not easy to revive coke overdoses.

"The thing with a heroin overdose is we have Narcan," Blatherwick 
said of the drug that restarts hearts. "We can usually resuscitate 
people, but with a cocaine overdose there isn't a lot we can do."
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