They are also issuing an urgent warning today to drug users not to inject Fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than heroin and can cause instant death. Despite several warnings during the past year and publicity surrounding two confirmed deaths from Fentanyl overdoses, addicts are continuing to extract the drug from patches before injecting it. Head of the Drug and Alcohol Service Mike Gafoor said there was no safe way to inject the drug and addicts were playing Russian roulette with their lives. Last year, Stephen John Taylor (37) and Quentin Cooper (26) both died of Fentanyl overdoses. Taylor had been prescribed the patches by his doctor for back pain. It is also suspected that Fentanyl may have been a factor in the deaths of Trevor Scott (32) on 29 December, Elliot Le Feuvre (26), who died in January, and Matthew Lakeman (24) and David Cromwell (23), who both died at the weekend. Inquiries into the four deaths are still under way.
