Pubdate: Sat, 31 May 2014
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2014 The Edmonton Journal
Contact: 
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Kim Magi
Page: B2
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

SO FAR, HEROIN BARELY ON THE RADAR IN EDMONTON, OFFICIALS SAY

While some cities in North America are anticipating a rise in heroin 
use, so far heroin use is so low in Edmonton that it's not 
statistically reportable, according to Alberta Health.

But it's not nonexistent. Alex (not his real name), a 39-year-old 
in-patient at a local recovery centre, said he only tried heroin 
because he wasn't able to get his hands on his drug of choice.

"I was looking for morphine," he said. "On this one occasion, there 
wasn't any available, but heroin was, and I was told it was even better."

Although he said he enjoyed the "instant rush" of heroin, it was 
always hard to come by and the quality varied.

"Sometimes heroin was really, really good, and sometimes bad."

Edmonton health professionals who work with drug addicts aren't clear 
about the amount of heroin use in the city.

"Nobody has a good sense of those numbers, and we don't ask, but we 
hear," said Marliss Taylor, program manager at Streetworks. "What we 
do know is that prior to 2012, there was not a lot of heroin in the 
province, period. There was pockets of it here and there, but people 
mostly kept it to themselves."

When prescription painkiller OxyContin was discontinued federally in 
2012, health officials saw a rise in heroin use.

Alex said during this time he also saw a rise in people selling their 
own opiate prescriptions.

"There seemed to be a lot of people in their 50s and 60s who were 
selling, and it was quite profitable," he said.

Alberta Health Services reports that use of all opiates, including 
heroin, has remained relatively stable over the last five years, at 
between 7,321 and 7,844 opiate abusers. Currently, opiates represent 
27 per cent of all reported substance abuse in Edmonton.

As for Alex, he finally decided to enter a program in January after 
trying short term treatment centres in Alberta.

"Since I quit, I can think of five (people in my former circle) that 
have died in the last four years," he said. "There could be more, but 
I don't keep in touch with them."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom