Pubdate: Mon, 23 May 2016 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Page: A3 Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Geordon Ormand FENTANYL ECLIPSING HEROIN IN VANCOUVER Number of Overdoses Rising As Cheaper Drug Gains Popularity, Experts Say VANCOUVER- For Hugh Lampkin, fentanyl's surge to all but replace heroin on the Vancouver drug scene calls to mind a curious image: a rainbow. "Traditionally, heroin comes in about four different colours," said the longtime drug advocate, describing a bland palette of beiges, browns and blacks. "Well now you're seeing multiple colours, like colours of the rainbow: green and pink and orange and white . . . Right away, when you see these colours that's a pretty good indicator that it's fentanyl that you're doing." As government data tracks a spike of fentanyl across Canada, people who use illicit drugs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside say there is virtually no heroin left on the street after it has been pushed out by the cheaper and more potent fentanyl. Martin Steward of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society said fentanyl's takeover is evident by how easily people are overdosing on small amounts of what is being sold as heroin, and simply by people's physical response to the drug. "I know people who use heroin and they'll inject what they normally do. And the next time they'll do exactly the same thing of what they think is heroin and they're out. Like, they're going under from it," Steward said in an interview, referring to an overdose. "They're using the same thing, the same product, but getting a different result. That's a forerunner for me to see that it's not heroin." There have been 256 fatal overdoses from illicit drugs in the first four months of this year, already more than half the 480 that occurred for all of 2015. Fentanyl's connection to those deaths has been surging at a staggering rate. The B.C. Coroners Service reported last week that the presence of fentanyl in cases of illicit-drug overdose deaths rose from a third in 2015 to nearly 50 per cent so far this year. Speaking anecdotally, Lampkin said he doesn't believe anyone in Vancouver has used real heroin in more than a year and that many users don't appear to be aware of it. "I think it's not so much as they're moving to it as a case of not having any choice," said Lampkin, who sits on the board for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Sgt. Darin Sheppard, who heads up a British Columbia RCMP division that investigates organized drug crime, said that while heroin is still present in the province, fentanyl is increasingly taking over the market. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom