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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom