Canada - 'Like a war zone': 16 overdoses before noon at Vancouver overdose prevention site

[sekio]

'Like a war zone': 16 overdoses before noon at Vancouver overdose prevention site

OPS says one particular strain of "bad dope" has been causing problems for around six months, and the only real solution is to increase access to a clean supply of drugs.

bc.ctvnews.ca

VANCOUVER - Frontline workers at Vancouver's Overdose Prevention Society are warning that a dangerous drug combination is causing a spike in overdoses and leaving people in a coma-like state before they can be revived.

Trey Helten, a manager at the OPS on East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside, said Friday started with two overdoses around 8 a.m. – and by noon, there had been 16 more. Four of those overdose victims ended up going to hospital for further treatment, Helten said.

"That's how our day started – it was like a warzone – and it didn't let up until three o'clock in the afternoon," Helten said.

While Friday was a particularly bad day for the sheer number of overdoses, Helten said one particular strain of "bad dope" has been causing problems for around six months.

Helten said it's a low-grade Benzodiazepine, a type of drug that slows down the body's central nervous system, mixed with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has caused thousands of deaths across North America in an ongoing overdose epidemic.

It causes an absolute blackout that can be difficult to rouse people out of, Helten said. When frontline workers give victims the overdose-reversal drug naloxone and oxygen, they often remain in what appears to be a coma.

I have heard that the "benzodiazepine" in question is apparently etizolam. I have to imagine people are smoking, and not injecting it, because the schoolyard rumor is benzos generally are not water soluble. But who knows, it could be another analog for all I know.

There was another thread that mentioned this some time ago, so this appears to be a recurring thing that you have to watch out for as an opioid user. As if the dope game isn't risky enough, now people are literally mixing the two drugs you SHOULDN'T mix... will dealers ever hit rock bottom?

 

[sewerslide.666mg]

that's scary shit I've seen sum spooky shit b4 to, just curious does Canada have fet dope like us

 

[sekio]

yeah, it's everywhere, there was a study of street opioid users in the downtown area, hundreds of people all got urine tested to see, and 100% of them tested positive for fent. a lot of "down" doesnt even have actual heroin in it any more.

 

[sewerslide.666mg]

that's true

 

[G_Chem]

yeah, it's everywhere, there was a study of street opioid users in the downtown area, hundreds of people all got urine tested to see, and 100% of them tested positive for fent. a lot of "down" doesnt even have actual heroin in it any more.

It’s this that keeps me from using lately. With how bad my cravings are, if I knew there was even the slightest chance I could find legit high quality heroin out there I’d be looking.. I just absolutely hate the feel of fentanyl.

-GC

 

[I_Hate_This_Place]

yeah, it's everywhere, there was a study of street opioid users in the downtown area, hundreds of people all got urine tested to see, and 100% of them tested positive for fent. a lot of "down" doesnt even have actual heroin in it any more.

Spot on. At one point in the last year or so I went ahead & ordered test kits. As I wanted to prove a point to other people in my area that there is no longer any heroin in what they're trying to call heroin...

Out of 20 batches of "dope, down, heroin, whatever the hell the dealer decides to call it" 19 were negative for diacetylmorphine. They had opioid effects & relieved withdrawals to varying degrees. The 1 that did test positive tested as very low.

I'd say its been years since I've seen real heroin. My location being in the north east US. Everything now is what I politely refer to as "random shit the dealer threw in a bag with some fentanyl or RC opioid sprinkled in for effect." Literally in some cases random powders with fent mixed in. It's just getting more & more absurd.

 

[polymath]

As for the solubility of etizolam, here's a list of some properties of triazolam which is a similar compound:



This is from https://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB00897

I suppose that value "pKa (strongest basic)" means that it can exist as ions in a solution of intermediate pH. Probably because of this the -zolams are easier to dissolve in water than other benzodiazepines.

 

[garym]

uk seems to be going over to the darkside too and by that i mean non of the "gear" or "dark" - the slang for heroin - is actually morphine based. you can smell it when you cook up. just stinks like a hospital.

 

[Hylight]

they might be making it a war zone so they can make an opioid crises, and then ban prescription medication also.
who really knows the truth though because there will always be prescription drug use and over use also.