Two young women are dead, a man was feared dead and at least two more residents were hospitalized last week in heroin-related incidents. Twenty-six-year-old Niomi Joanette died Sunday (Feb. 11), and Angie Brown, also in her twenties, died Wednesday (Feb. 14) after suffering severe health problems exacerbated by heroin use. A third man was hospitalized and a fourth man was missing and initially feared dead in other heroin-related incidents last week. Several days later, on Monday (Feb. 19), a fifth young man was hospitalized after heroin use.
According to unconfirmed reports, the missing man may in fact have been scared straight and says he now intends to stay off drugs.The man hospitalized most recently was given the counteracting drug Narcan after he was discovered not breathing at a Westway apartment in Valleycliffe. The 18-year-old had allegedly been taking various drugs, including heroin, and drinking alcohol since the previous evening, said RCMP Cpl. Dave Ritchie.
Ritchie said there is a growing trend in town for drug users to turn away from crack cocaine and crystal meth and toward heroin.Social service workers were unable to explain the apparent spike in drug-related incidents because Squamish doesn't have street-level outreach addictions counsellors.
"We don't have that person who is in with that particular community and knows what's going on," said Sea to Sky Community Services Addictions, Drug and Alcohol counsellor Denise Evans. "I've thought for four years that an outreach person for both adults and youth was a necessary part of our team. It's significant."
Evans said she's hearing that it's not only heroin use that is sending people to hospital, but multi-drug use. But counsellors are only in a position help individuals who have removed themselves from the community associated with addiction, and the only person with any sense of increased use of heroin would be Needle Exchange Program director Richard Trann. But the social service workers' hearts does go out to the community, said Evans.
"Every single one of us, we're all of us really sad about the deaths and about the impact on the people that are using," she said.Police are not treating the deaths of Joanette and Brown as suspicious since medical reports indicate the problems were health-related. Joanette had a history of heart problems and died from complications related to heart failure. Brown died from a staph infection that had reached her heart, according to RCMP.
Heroin is still believed to have exacerbated the women's health problems and triggered immune system breakdowns.RCMP has said there have been no reports of "hot heroin" - either contaminated or too pure - in town.
"It's not hot heroin," said Ritchie. "They [the women] were at a medical facility so it was considered a natural death. It's not considered the jurisdiction of a coroner or the RCMP to investigate. If it was an overdose from hot heroin or something, we would have been advised."
Trann said he hasn't heard that a pure grade of drugs was going through Squamish.
There's been no warning issued through the community or at the public health office, but Trann nonetheless warned heroin users to be careful when taking their drugs.
"I would suggest all IV drug users to always practice harm reduction and use a little to start off and to check their drugs that way."
