Summary
"At least 20 people last year told me they'd used heroin in the city, some regularly, some only intermittently," [Lindy Lee] said. "I think it's just starting to get a toehold in Winnipeg and we'd like to see it disappear. I've seen people (who say) that heroin was their drug of choice."
Abuse has "snowballed," Lee said, and more people are experimenting with extracting and injecting fentanyl from pain patches that contain that opiate, with devastating results. Lee said that she knows of at least eight of 13 deaths from opiates in 2009 that were due to fentanyl, including several people who were her former patients or close friends of patients she's treated.There's also been a slight increase in the number of patients injecting the "poor man's speedball" of Talwin and Ritalin -- two prescription drugs that, when injected, can cause serious infections and progressive lung disease from its chalky residue.See the full content of this document
Extract
Heroin Use Rises, Spread Feared
Experts lament injection-drug increase
A recent surge in the number of inner-city drug users injecting heroin has addiction experts worried the powerful opiate could spread on the streets of Winnipeg.Until now, heroin abuse was virtually unhe...See the full content of this document
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