Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jul 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Page: A8
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: John Colebourn

HEALTH AUTHORITIES SEEK SAFE INHALATION SITE AFTER OVERDOSES

At Least 43 Treated After Taking Crack Laced With Fentanyl on the Weekend

At least 43 overdoses in Surrey's Whalley area over the weekend are 
being attributed to crack cocaine being laced with the deadly opioid fentanyl.

And as police and health care workers scramble to warn people of the 
unprecedented risks they face in using crack cocaine, those on the 
front lines think it is time to open up a safe inhalation site.

At the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, spokesman Hugh Lampkin 
said they used to have a "consumption room" for both intravenous and 
crack cocaine users.

But three years ago the facility was closed by Vancouver Coastal 
Health, with Insite now the only safe-injection facility in 
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"I'd like to see a sanctioned inhalation and consumption room where 
they could smoke or use a needle," Lampkin said Monday.

Lampkin said having a safe, properly ventilated room to smoke crack 
would reduce the number of fatalities. "Staff would be in there 
monitoring people," he said.

As for the risk on the street, Lampkin said any hard drug may be 
laced with fentanyl. "People have to be very, very careful right now," he said.

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Scotty Schumann said police and health care 
providers have been warning Whalley's drug users that the crack 
cocaine sold on the street has high levels of fentanyl in it.

"What we believe is happening is the crack cocaine is being 
cross-contaminated at the facility where they are packaging it up," 
Schumann said. "A minuscule amount is enough to cause an overdose."

Despite the high number of overdoses, no one has died.

Addiction counsellor Kevin McArthur said cocaine users are being 
caught off guard with the fentanyl scare. "It is a horrible, horrible 
thing," he said. "They think they are using rock cocaine and it has 
an opiate in it."

Fraser Health's chief medical officer Dr. Victoria Lee said they 
would also like to look at a facility specifically for crack users.

"Some of the patients we saw over the weekend required up to six 
times the usual amount of naloxone to revive them," she said.

"This can be due to a number of factors, including the presence of 
fentanyl which is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom