St John

We've seen an increase in aggressive and demanding behaviour in our hospital emergency rooms," says Arlene Haddon. "Increasingly our physicians are faced with aggressive and demanding patients, at times violent, and around the community we are seeing discarded and dirty syringes."

In Miramichi, police are planning to mark narcotic pills dispensed from local pharmacies to track their path from the druggist to the dealer, to the street. Drug officers across the province are particularly angry about the problem, speaking out often and loudly about the need to control it.

Saint John street crime investigator Cpl. Steve Gourdeau says the problem is infiltrating every community in this province for the simple reason that Dilaudid is so easily obtained.

"It is widely available and it is fairly inexpensive. It is considered by many to be a legal drug. It is a pill that you can obtain from a pharmacy after a prescription," he says. "Fathers, mothers and grandmothers have it for treating legitimate pain problems, and what often happens is other people put their hands on those pills, or they realize there is a demand and then we have a problem, a major problem."

Gourdeau calls Dilaudid "the hardest drug on the street" because of its similarity to Heroin. Addicts are junkies, he says. When they try to get off the drug, they suffer withdrawal symptoms.

sources : http://www.drug-rehab.ca/newbrunswickrehabcenter.htm