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An electronic warning sign in central Amsterdam: 'Extremely dangerous cocaine is sold to tourists.'
A warning sign in Amsterdam near the Bulldog coffeeshop. At least 17 people have needed medical treatment after taking white heroin, possibly believing it to be cocaine. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP
A warning sign in Amsterdam near the Bulldog coffeeshop. At least 17 people have needed medical treatment after taking white heroin, possibly believing it to be cocaine. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

British tourists who died ‘after snorting white heroin’ named

This article is more than 9 years old
Shaun Brotherston and Bradley Price, who were found dead in a hotel on Tuesday, believed to have thought powder was cocaine

Two British men who died after apparently taking drugs in Amsterdam have been named as 20-year-old Shaun Brotherston and Bradley Price, 21. They were found dead in a hotel room on Tuesday next to a white powder that is thought to have been white heroin, although it is believed the pair thought that it was cocaine. The bodies were found less than a month after another British tourist died in similar circumstances, said police spokesman Rob van der Veen.

“The men apparently died after sniffing white heroin which they may have thought to be cocaine,” Van der Veen told Agence France-Presse.

At least 17 people have so far required medical treatment after taking the white heroin, Van der Veen said. “White heroin looks like cocaine, is sold as cocaine and people think they are snorting cocaine. The result is respiratory failure,” he said.

Many of Amsterdam’s tourists are drawn to its coffee shops where the sale of cannabis is tolerated, although hard drugs are illegal in the Netherlands. White heroin has historically been produced in south-east Asia, and is generally purer and more expensive than brown heroin.

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