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Warning issued to drug users as 31 people in Vancouver overdose on potent heroin

Toxic heroin has resulted in 31 overdoses in two days at Vancouver’s safe injection site — believed to be a record for the facility that opened 11 years ago.

VANCOUVER — Toxic heroin has resulted in 31 overdoses in two days at Vancouver’s safe injection site — believed to be a record for the facility that opened 11 years ago.

Gavin Wilson, a spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, said 15 people overdosed at Insite on Monday, and there were 16 overdoses on Sunday.

Wilson says that this year, contaminated heroin has caused 10 to 12 overdoses a week at the facility where users inject their own drugs under the watchful eye of a nurse.

The Vancouver Police Department issued a warning to drug users on Sunday, when a dozen people had overdosed on potent heroin.

Police believed the death of one woman was related to the drug.

Coroner Barb McLintock says the woman in her 20s died in a hostel in the Downtown Eastside but that toxicology tests have yet to confirm the cause of death.