Heroin use on the rise in Calgary
Posted Feb 5, 2014 2:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary Police say they’ve seen a significant increase in heroin use in the city over the past couple years.
The drug has been put in the spotlight recently, after another celebrity, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, died of an overdose.
In 2013, the Calgary Police Service reports, it had 46 seizures of the drug, up from 28 in 2012.
In the past, the drug was not commonly encountered in Calgary, but is now becoming more available here.
Police attribute the increase to a lack of availability of the drug, oxycontin.
Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson with the CPS Drug Unit told 660News, the effects are much the same.
Hanson said heroin, like any street drug, is of course, very dangerous.
“You don’t know what it is you’re getting, first of all, whether it is what in fact its being held out to be, and whether it’s been contaminated by anything else. As well, dosages, self-medicating is very dangerous. So, it can be fatal in many cases,” he said.
Calgary Police say they are coming up with a strategy to deal with the newfound popularity of the drug.
