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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom