For years the media has called Vancouver the heroin Capital of Canada. Customs   
   officers have found the drug in containers, false bottomed suitcases and in   
   grandmothers' corsets and breast implants of women visiting from China.   
   Greater Vancouver has    
   approximately 150,000 registered heroin addicts who receive the drug free from   
   selected pharmacies on a provincially operated program. It is estimated that   
   there are double that number of addicts who are not registered. How did this   
   situation come about?   
      
   Before Confederation, British Columbia was virtually run by the British Navy   
   which supported itself with a tax levied on raw opium coming into Vancouver   
   and Victoria to supply the curing factories which produced heroin. The product   
   was sold to miners    
   during the gold rush and walked down the Oregon Trail into the US. After   
   Confederation imported opium became illegal and so heroin began to be smuggled   
   in from China to supply local consumption.    
      
   One method used to recruit heroin users is mixing it with other things that   
   are consumed. A popular pastime in Vancouver is called riding the dragon,   
   which involves smoking marijuana that has been laced with heroin. Every year   
   local newspapers report a    
   number of teens who have died riding the dragon. It is acknowledged that there   
   are unreported deaths which are disguised as something else.   
      
   Several years ago a young man coming out of heroin detox agreed to make a   
   short documentary as a means of warning teens about the dangers involved in   
   the practice. He had been a star hockey player in Prince George in Northern BC   
   who was picked up in a    
   draft by a Lower Mainland team. He didn't know many people and when he wasn't   
   practicing or playing, he started having a joint to pass the time. Then   
   someone introduced him to the Dragon. It wasn't long before he stopped smoking   
   pot and started using    
   heroin. Then he quit hockey. Eventually he was arrested in the street and   
   sentenced to detox.   
      
   It has been noted that the use of cocaine is increasing every year. One   
   wonders if they have started lacing BC Bud with cocaine too.   
      
   JL - 30-05-2015   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)