HEROIN USERS across the State are being urged to exercise extreme caution with the drug after three more people died as a result of overdosing on it over the weekend.
The three latest deaths occurred in Dublin and follow three deaths in Kilkenny last week.
The overdoses come as batches of “high quality” heroin have come into circulation following a heroin “drought” over Christmas and the new year, the Irish Needle Exchange Forum has warned.
Tim Bingham, spokesman for the forum, said yesterday the deaths were “very worrying” and urged heroin users to be “very, very careful about using heroin”.
The forum works to develop harm reduction strategies and needle exchanges throughout Ireland.
Mr Bingham said that during the “heroin drought” in the last weeks of 2010 drug users had been turning to other substances. What heroin was available would also have been bulked out with other substances, and would have been more “dilute” than it is now.
“We are now receiving reports that there are batches of heroin that are better quality and can elevate the risk of overdose. Unfortunately recently there have been three fatal overdoses in the Kilkenny region.”
He said that as users might not have used heroin recently due to the shortage, their tolerance levels would have dropped.
“Using the same amount of heroin as they have previously used can cause a person to overdose. A person’s tolerance for a drug, or combination of drugs, can change for a variety of reasons.
“[For instance] If a person is beginning to use again after a period of using lower grade heroin or has been using other substances. The body’s tolerance decreases when there is not regular access to drugs.”
The organisation has issued harm reduction warnings to users.
