Thursday March 5 2015
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▲ Farm and food banks in a fracas 10
DRUG DEATHS SPARK WARNING
▶ SURREY AMONG THE HOT SPOTS FOR TOXIC NARCOTIC THAT IS CAUSING A SPIKE IN OVERDOSES JEFF NAGEL
KITTY CONUNDRUM ▶ SURREY IS HOME TO 34,000 FREEROAMING FELINES LIVING ‘GRIM’ LIVES 3
Kiki is one of three six-week-old kittens recently rescued from a barn. While feral – or wild – cats make up part of Surrey’s huge at-large feline population, there are also abandoned tame cats and domestic cats that have not been spayed or neutered that are contributing to the problem. In comparison, Vancouver has about 200 roaming cats. PHOTO SUBMITTED
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A spike in fentanyl drug overdose deaths in both Vancouver and the Fraser Health region has prompted a warning from police and public health officials. Police say the synthetic narcotic is increasingly being sold to drug users in B.C., either on its own or often laced with other drugs – even marijuana. There were 29 overdose deaths tied to fentanyl – which is a highly toxic opioid painkiller – in Vancouver in 2014, followed by 18 in Langley and 15 in Surrey, according to Deputy Chief Coroner Vince Stancato of the B.C. Coroners Service. He said fentanyl deaths also occurred last year in Maple Ridge, Nanaimo, Prince George and Fort St. John. Many victims are described as recreational users who snorted, smoked or took pills they thought were another drug – such as cocaine, heroin or oxycodone – without realizing it contained fentanyl, which officials say is 50 to 100 times more toxic and can kill in small doses. Fentanyl was present in just five per cent of drug overdose deaths in 2012, but that soared to 25 per cent of the 336 overdose deaths in B.C. last year, according to the coroners’ service. Most victims were not injection drug users. Casual party drug users who take pills or snort or smoke drugs are considered most at risk, rather than the injection drug users who are more often associated with overdoses. “It’s very concerning,” said Dr. Marcus Lem, a medical health officer for Fraser Health. “These are folks that often may not appear to anybody else to have an issue.” Lem said many overdoses happen in private homes and the number of deaths in communities like Langley and Maple Ridge show the problem is not just limited to ▶ “Everybody... urban areas where drug use is most visible. seems to think “Everybody in the public seems to think the only people using drugs are in the Downtown the only people Eastside. That’s just not true.” using drugs are While fentanyl patches are sometimes stolen from pharmacies or prescribed and then resold in the Downtown on the street, Vancouver Police and RCMP Eastside. That’s officials said they believe much of the fentanyl now showing up is illegally manufactured and just not true.” arriving in powder, liquid or pill form. DR. MARCUS LEM
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