Supt Smith said police were gathering intelligence on heroin availability, purity and price in the area. They would also interview the most recent victims, believed to be three men and two young women, when their health allowed in a bid to determine the origin of the drugs they took.
"We've certainly been making it harder out there for drug dealers to operate," he said, referring to sniffer dog and Operation Vikings operations.
"Definitely in Redfern we've certainly upped the ante in terms of operations and high visibility policing in our problem areas and our known drug locations.
"It's a prohibited drug, so we're certainly enforcing the rules, but this is also a general health alert that there is something in this current batch that is posing a severe health risk."|||
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 Canada
Smoking Heroin Dangerous
The city's chief medical health officer is investigating why three Vancouver residents have died since last fall and seven others suffered varying degrees of brain damage from smoking heroin.
Dr. John Blatherwick said the 10 cases comprise the largest group of toxic heroin reactions in such a short time period ever in North America, and he's worried more people could die or fall ill before the cause is determined.
His investigation, however, is hampered by the difficulty of getting solid information from the living victims, who either can't speak or have irreversible brain damage. The victims are all adults, seven of whom live outside the Downtown Eastside. Called "heroin-induced toxic leukoencephalopathy," the condition involves alteration of the white matter of the brain through exposure to a toxin or poison.Blatherwick...»»
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Australia: 
