Isn't this just modern natural selection?

[gravitas]

Capital Health issues warning after three mysterious deaths and multiple emergency casesCapital Health is worried a lethal batch of street drugs is behind three recent deaths and several other people ending up in the emergency ward.

This month, several suspicious cases of severe hypoglycemia - low blood sugar - in non-diabetic people ranging in age from 18 to 33 have shown up at the Royal Alexandra hospital.

Three people have died, the latest on Christmas Day, said Marcia Johnson, Capital Health's deputy medical officer of health, who added the region was first made aware of the situation on Dec. 17.

It's believed drug use - including ecstasy, valium, and crack cocaine - is a common factor among those afflicted.

Johnson said it's not clear what's contributing to the deaths. It may be potent drugs, drugs cut with other dangerous substances, or something else.

"We're not sure what is happening at all," she said. "In fact, excessive alcohol can make your blood sugar low, too."

She said that it's rare for that condition to lead to death.

"It was difficult to get a history from them (the victims) because they were unconscious," said Johnson. "But it seems there was a history of using of illicit drugs."

The medical examiner hasn't yet ruled on what the three people died from, said Johnson.

Shortly after Capital Health was notified, other agencies in the health sector were contacted by e-mail, asking for any information on the cases.

"Two of the non-fatal cases had histories of recent contact with inner-city shelters," reads the e-mail, "and the others had home addresses in the vicinity of the Royal Alexandra hospital."

Johnson said no similar cases have been reported yet.

Dr. Mat Rose of the inner-city's Boyle McCauley Health Centre said he had received the Capital Health e-mail, but hadn't come across anything similar to what it described.

"I don't know of any recreational drug that could drive someone's blood sugar down that low," Rose said, stressing he was speculating.

He figures someone may be selling pills as one thing when they're something quite different, or that drugs are being cut with other chemicals.

Johnson said police - who were also notified - told Capital Health there were rumours of bad drugs circulating on the streets.

Police couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

The e-mail asked that people be made aware of the dangers of buying and using drugs.

Warning symptoms of hypoglycemia include shakiness, dizziness, sweating, headache, pale skin, clumsiness and hunger.

If not treated, hypoglycemia can lead to confusion, seizures, loss of consciousness and death.

To continue along my current "I'm a bon bon" streak this is another example on why we need safe injection sites.

 

[athaire]

I like you better cranky.

 

[maxx50]

maybe insulin shock!

When ever i here low blood sugar I think to much insulin eather made by them or someone has given them an insulin over dose... There was a fade going around once of injecting insulin ... part of it was for wieght loss but there was an other side to ,..
But with some of these drugs they take.. and what they add to them they never know what the are getting.. Of course if it is insulin .. they would have to be shooting something up.. maybe meth. mixed with insulin.

 

[TheRater]

Uhh.... the 'safe' injection sites (safe injection is such an oxymoron when you are talking about heroin) aren't for the drugs that they mentioned as being the problem...

In fact, there is a fundamental problem with the whole idea of having something called a 'safe injection site'. How can you try to convince people that heroin is bad, and will totally fuck up the rest of your entire life, if you then tell them "Don't worry, if you inject HERE, it is 'safe'"

Poor Darwin, we're so totally screwing with all his theories.

sigh ... heroin is just like any other drug ... no worse ... it is sad to see that the thinking that led to marijuana and heroin being thought of as 'worse' is still around.

And for the record, all drugs are bad. I am just trying to say that heroin is no worse than cocaine or meth.

And the thinking is that people are going to shoot up no matter what, better to supply clean needles and a safe, warm place to come down than to b using shared needles in some back alley.

- TR.

 

[gravitas]

I like you better cranky.

LMAO...thats pretty damn funny!

 

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

If the dealers would simply sell placebos, we'd all win!

 

[TheRater]

Ok, first off, I made no statement that heroin is 'worse' than cocaine or meth... not sure where that came from.

I was responding to this post.

... (safe injection is such an oxymoron when you are talking about heroin) ...

I read it as 'heroin makes safe injection an oxymoron' ... sorry.

- TR

 

[mick_eight]

Uhh.... the 'safe' injection sites (safe injection is such an oxymoron when you are talking about heroin) aren't for the drugs that they mentioned as being the problem...

In fact, there is a fundamental problem with the whole idea of having something called a 'safe injection site'. How can you try to convince people that heroin is bad, and will totally fuck up the rest of your entire life, if you then tell them "Don't worry, if you inject HERE, it is 'safe'"

Poor Darwin, we're so totally screwing with all his theories.

Its a medical fact that morphine does no damage to the body, if the heroin is pure and cut with inert substances, it does no damage to the body. There have been instances of MDs being morphine addicts for 65 years with no health problems from its use. The problem in Van is the junkies spend all their money on down and don't eat. The MDs that are hooked on morphine can afford food . MDs have a high incidence of morphine addiction, higher then the other professions. Better dealers I guess

 

[rockstarmunkey]

I agree with Avarice... it is bullshit.

Getting them off heroin for methadone is a waste of time... with all the hassles to even GET on the program, they go down the street and buy more dope anyway... or people go on the program and sell it on the streets.

 

[mick_eight]

I'm totally against safe injection sites.

I read up on how nurses have to help old junkies find veins and shit. One would think not being able to find a vein would be a bit of a push to quit the stuff. Not so when you have medical personal finding them for you.

What the fuck has happened to our society where we allow junkies to get high and be given help to find veins.

Fuck, it's completely encouraging it in my opinion.

It's fucking disgusting. If they break the law and it's obvious they have substance issues..make rehab mandatory...put more resources into PREVENTION and treatment...not fucking help them by putting the needles in their veins.
I'm not saying it right, just that it does not damage the body medically, JJ should be able to concur on that, they heroin and morphine are both opiates also codiene, all come from poppy plant

 

[sdw]

Keep in mind that one of the reasons they don't have good studies on long term effects of heroin use on the body is because they can't find many subjects who have been heroin users for a long time and don't have dozens of other health problems caused by things like dirty needles, unsanitary injections, bad nutrition, and generally doing dumb things because you are stoned all the time.

So, directly or indirectly, in almost every single case the 'side effect' of heroin addiction is living a miserable life as a walking zombie who is totally under control of the drug (and their dealer) who eventually dies either directly (overdose) or indirectly (HIV, drug violence, getting hit by a car cuz you were too stoned etc...) as a result of their addiction.

I've always said that if you REALLY want to go down the 'harm reduction' pathway to its logical conclusion, just set up dormatories in old warehouses with bunkbeds and IV drips of heroin and glucose etc.. together with feeding tubes and let the addicts lay there in bed and rot their lives away. That would be the ultimate in 'harm reduction'.

I say that every nickle spent on harm reduction could be better spent on preventing the problem in the first place.

You are ignoring the experiance in Europe. There are several European Countries where an addict can receive pure narcotics and clean needles.

http://issues06.emcdda.europa.eu/en/page006-en.html

The problem is, the programs don't work. While the Opiate use is going down due to the aging of the users, other drug use is on the rise.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/internat.htm




"Current estimates suggest there are probably between 1.2 and 2.1 million problem drug users in the EU, of whom 850 000 to 1.3 million are likely to be recent injectors. Problem drug use prevalence estimates over time are patchy, making it difficult to identify long-term trends. However, in the EU-15 Member States, indicators broadly suggest that the rapid recruitment into heroin use that most countries had been experiencing peaked at some time in the early 1990s and was followed by a more stable situation thereafter. Although several countries have continued to report increases since 1999, there are recent signs that this situation is not uniform, with prevalence estimates showing no consistent picture at EU level. In particular, the new Member States deserve special mention, as they appear to have experienced heroin problems later and to have a more fluid situation."

Source: "Annual Report 2005: The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe," European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005), p. 12.


"Additional sources of information for assessing problem drug use are the numbers of drug-related deaths and treatment demands. Analysis of drug-related deaths (most commonly due to opiate overdose) suggests that the victims constitute an ageing population, with recorded deaths among drug users younger than 25 having fallen since 1996. An important qualification is that data from the newer EU countries, although limited, show until recently an upwards trend in the proportion of deaths among those under 25, although a degree of stabilisation now appears to have occurred. Overall, although the number of drugrelated deaths in the EU remains at a historically high level, it seems likely to have peaked."

Source: "Annual Report 2005: The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe," European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005), p. 12.


"Europe remains a major market for stimulant drugs, and indicators suggest that for Europe as a whole the trend in amphetamine, ecstasy and cocaine use continues to be upwards. Ecstasy has, on many measures, overtaken amphetamines as Europe’s second most used drug after cannabis. However, in the United Kingdom, which since the 1990s has on most measures had the highest prevalence rates of ecstasy and amphetamine use, both general and school population recent survey data suggest that rates of use of both drugs may be falling, quite dramatically for amphetamine and to a more limited extent for ecstasy. Nevertheless, prevalence rates in the United Kingdom remain relatively high in comparison with other countries, although the difference is now less marked, as a number of countries now report similar rates of use, resembling the picture described above for cannabis."

Source: "Annual Report 2005: The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe," European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005), p. 12.



It seems that there exist people that don't want to use drugs in a "safe" manner and who will not use the drugs that their government is willing to supply and permit the use of.