Opiate-Related Deaths Soar

[Midnight toker]

Press Release Source: Hazelden Foundation


Hazelden Report: Opiate-Related Deaths Soar

Thursday June 15, 9:15 am ET
Alcohol and Marijuana Treatment Admissions Decline


MINNEAPOLIS, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Accidental overdose deaths from opiates (heroin, methadone, fentanyl, oxycodone) in the Twin Cities grew from 72 in 2004 to 102 in 2005, a 42 percent increase, according to a new report on drug abuse trends released today by the Hazelden Foundation. Cocaine-related deaths grew from 49 to 62 in the same time period and methamphetamine related deaths declined slightly from 20 to 14.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/200 ... GTH007LOGO )

"Although methamphetamine continues to capture public attention the consequences of opiate abuse and addiction have quietly increased as well," said Carol Falkowski, Hazelden director of research communications and report author. Opiate-related deaths have outnumbered those for cocaine in the Twin Cities since 2001. "Especially with powerful opiates, accidental overdose is always a possibility for novice and experienced users alike," she added.

The Hazelden report examines data from medical examiners, hospital emergency rooms, addiction treatment centers and crime labs in the Twin Cities area.

Many school-based counselors reported the continued adolescent abuse of prescription drugs, especially painkillers, medications prescribed for ADHD, and over-the-counter cough and cold products containing dextromethorphan. "Kids who abuse drugs tend to abuse whatever mood-altering substances they can get their hands on," Falkowski added. "Parents need to be reminded of this as we enter the more unsupervised summer months."


<ul>Other findings include:

<li>Admissions to Twin Cities area addiction treatment programs for methamphetamine accounted for 12 percent of total admissions in 2005, compared with 3.1 percent in 2000.

</li><li>Alcohol-related treatment admissions fell from 54.4 percent of admissions in 2000, to 45.8 percent in 2005 and marijuana admissions from 22.3 percent to 17.7 percent.

</li><li>Statewide, meth labs declined 78 percent comparing the third quarter of 2005 with the same quarter in 2004
</li></ul>

This is Falkowski's 40th report on Twin Cities drug abuse trends, which is prepared twice annually for participation in an epidemiological drug abuse monitoring network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse that detects new drugs of abuse, patterns of use, and populations at risk.

The nonprofit Hazelden Foundation, an international provider of addiction treatment, education, research and training since 1949, offers programs, services, and publications for individuals, families, and communities affected by addiction. It has facilities in Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, and New York.




<hr>
Source: Hazelden Foundation

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: West Virginia sees flood of prescription junkies

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Alert escalates on drug mix: 'Too many dying'

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Prescription Drug Abuse in Teens

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Las Vegas Prescription Drug Abuse Growing Problem

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol: A Harm-Reduction Approacl - Tod H. Mikuriya

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Nations Most Comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to Be Implemented in California


Father of Two Children Killed Calls on Drug Makers for Support

PharmaLive.com

DANVILLE, Calif., June 20, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 26, 2003, Carmen Pack took her two children, 10-year-old Troy and 7-year-old Alana, for a walk to get ice cream after a Sunday dinner in this affluent San Francisco suburb. Jimena Barreto, a professional nanny, was on her way to work. Driving erratically, she crossed several lanes of roadway and drove onto the sidewalk, killing both Troy and Alana and injuring their mother. Barreto fled the scene and was captured several days later. Bob Pack, Troy and Alana's father, recalls the traumatic experience of finding the bodies of his children strewn on the sidewalk and his frantic though futile efforts to save them, "I'm haunted and scarred for life by what I saw that day."

Barreto had numerous prior DUIs on her record and had been abusing the prescription narcotic Vicodin for some time. While poring over her medical records prior to the trial, Bob Pack was appalled to discover that Barreto had obtained hundreds and hundreds of Vicodin tablets over the previous year. In the weeks prior to the crash, she was given six Vicodin prescriptions from six different doctors at the same HMO for a total of several hundred pills, despite the fact that none of the injuries she complained of were corroborated by the physicians. By the night she killed the Pack children, she had taken them all, and when picked up by the Police and FBI several days later she admitted to being under their influence that night. At trial, the doctors who prescribed them admitted they had not checked her medical records and in some cases were not even able to obtain her file before writing the prescriptions.

In May 2005, Barreto was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. The case drew national attention for being tried as second-degree murder while under the influence of prescription drugs. She is now serving her sentence in Valley State Women's Prison in Chowchilla, California.

After their children were killed, Bob and Carmen Pack set up the Troy and Alana Pack Foundation www.troyandalana.org as a vehicle to channel their pain into something positive and to seek changes in the law to help prevent future tragedies. After obtaining the 2004 Report of the General Accounting Office on prescription narcotic abuse, Bob Pack was incensed and astonished to discover the lack of action taken by our elected leaders on this issue. "Researching further, I also learned that there were almost 250 million prescriptions written in 2005 year for narcotics including Vicodin and Oxycontin and that use of these drugs has outpaced the use of marijuana and cocaine combined in the U.S. Although the DEA claims this is a national epidemic, Congress has appropriated very little money to fund monitoring programs to curb this abuse," claims Pack.

Pack goes on to state, "I wonder what role pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are playing in Congress's lack of action on this subject. Vicodin and Oxycontin are both opiates that are synthetic forms of heroin. When these drugs were made available as schedule three narcotics, Congress unleashed a tsunami of public health and safety problems on the American public and basically left it to the individual states to deal with the consequences."

Taking action in California, Pack enlisted the help of State Senator Tom Torlakson and several state agencies, such as the California Department of Justice, the California Board of Pharmacy and the California Pharmacy Foundation, to expand upon the current Prescription Drug Monitoring Program ("PDMP") for California. State Senator Torlakson introduced SB 734, an amendment to a prior law, SB 151, requiring doctors to report additional schedules of narcotic prescriptions to the DOJ and use special pads for reporting patient information. Effective January 1, 2005, the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, know as CURES, began capturing all prescribed Schedule III substances. In addition, Schedule II-V Controlled Substances will now be written on new, tamper-resistant prescription forms obtained from a security form vendor approved by the Department of Justice. State Senator Tom Torlakson said, "This program is long overdue and will enhance the safety for all Californians. I am 100% behind this effort and glad that we are on track to implement a PDMP. It's a shame that a tragedy involving two innocent children is the impetus for this action."

SB 734 was signed by Governor Schwartzenegger and became effective in January 2006. According to Bob Pack, however, "This is only the first leg of a two-part program. The second and most essential prong will be the formation of an online narcotic prescription drug-monitoring program. Unfortunately California is in a fiscal crisis and there is no state money available for this prong of the program. We desperately need private funding for a feasibility study and ultimately implementation of the program."

The PDMP will utilize the existing Department of Justice CURES database system to provide patient history to doctors and pharmacists. Under the new PDMP, the DOJ's CURES system will additionally track fraudulent consumer narcotic use and help prevent doctor shopping of the type done by Jimena Barreto. Once a patient activity report or PAR, is entered into the CURES database, it will be available over the web via a secure online reporting system for all pharmacists and doctors in California. This will provide them with essential information on every patient who attempts to fill a narcotic prescription in California. Pack says, "Pharmacists will now be the front line of defense in the war on doctor shopping and fraudulent use of narcotics. The technology is readily available, so we hope to have the enhanced PDMP up and running by next year. Others States have implemented regional tracking systems and Virginia just recently opened up a state-wide program. California will be the most comprehensive due to the sheer volume of prescriptions. A proper tracking system could have prevented the deaths of Troy and Alana."

Pack believes that Purdue Pharmaceuticals (the maker of Oxycontin) and Abbott Labs (the maker of Vicodin) should be involved in funding the program. Other popular pain narcotics are brands Lorcet, Percodan, Lortab and Percocet. "I am calling on Purdue, Abbott Labs and others to step up and do the right thing and help us implement a program that will lead to responsible use of these narcotics," Pack says. He estimates the cost of implementing the program in California could be several million dollars, with approximately $125,000 needed immediately to fund a feasibility study. "In the meantime, I would love to hear from our Congressional leaders as to why they haven't taken this issue more seriously."

Alana Pack Foundation

CONTACT: Bob Pack of Troy and Alana Pack Foundation, mobile,+1-925-918-0843; or California State Senator Tom Torlakson, SacramentoOffice, +1-916-651-4007; or Tom Dresslar of California Dept. of Justice,Office of the Attorney General Bill Lockyer, +1-916-324-5500

Web site: http://www.troyandalana.org//

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Heroin overdoses shoot up

Three in 3 months after none in more than a year

The State Journal-Register
By JAYETTE BOLINSKI
STAFF WRITER

Published Sunday, September 17, 2006

A rash of deaths caused by heroin overdoses has caught the attention of Springfield police and the county coroner, but it remains unclear if a tainted batch of the drug made its way into the city or if the fatalities are coincidental.

Three people have died of heroin overdoses in Sangamon County since June, according to the coroner's office: a 25-year-old man on June 20 at Memorial Medical Center; a 54-year-old Urbana woman who died Aug. 21 at a Springfield residence she was visiting, and a 24-year-old man on Aug. 31 at St. John's Hospital.

Before that, the last fatality caused by a heroin overdose was in March 2005.

Heroin overdoses, particularly fatal ones, are uncommon in Springfield, given the relatively low number of users that police and federal drug agents believe are here. Crack cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana are more popular street drugs.

Heroin laced with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, has been blamed for the deaths of 185 Cook County drug users since April 2005, according to published reports. It also has been blamed for fatal overdoses in St. Louis.

Chicago and St. Louis are major source cities for drug dealers in Springfield, according to local police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials.

Additional deaths attributed to such overdoses have been documented in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Authorities said some victims may have intentionally sought out the painkiller, which is several times more powerful than heroin and morphine, while others may have unknowingly purchased it on the street.

Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone said she's handled more fatal heroin overdoses this summer than she ever has.

"I remember in one week I had two, and I said to one of my staff, 'Wow, it must be epidemic,'" Boone said. "I remember, years and years ago, you used to hear about heroin addicts, and it just kind of went by the wayside and you started hearing about other things people were doing with drugs."

Although there's an apparent surge in fatal overdoses, heroin use in Springfield is not considered to be on the upswing, according to Tony Grootens, resident agent in charge of the Springfield DEA field office. He said the agents in his office were not aware of the recent fatal overdoses.

"It concerns me, period. But it really concerns me that we've had (three) here and none of our agents know it," he said.

Michael Leathers, spokesman for Memorial Medical Center, which has been the city's designated trauma center since July 2005, said employees have not seen anything to indicate a trend up or down in heroin use.

"We have not seen a lot of heroin cases coming in here at all, certainly not enough to tell them there is a trend there and we're concerned," Leathers said.

On July 7, the Illinois Department of Public Health alerted hospitals, first responders and health-care providers throughout the state to be on the lookout for fentanyl-tainted drug overdoses, which could result in "severe and immediate respiratory depression, irregular heart beat and death."

It noted that the effects of such an overdose occur rapidly and that "critical treatment minutes can be lost because emergency room personnel may not be aware that fentanyl is not detected in standard toxicology screens."

Fentanyl is 50 to 80 times stronger than morphine. It is used to manage pain during surgery and for people with chronic pain who already have a tolerance to opiates. It can be stolen from hospitals or produced in illegal laboratories for mixing with heroin.

It is unknown if the three local fatalities this summer were, in fact, the result of fentanyl-tainted heroin. Detecting fentanyl, which, like heroin, is an opiate, requires a special toxicology test when autopsies are done. A routine toxicology screening, which takes 10 days to two weeks for results, would only show that the victim died of a heroin overdose.

Boone said the special fentanyl screening was not performed on any of the three local victims, to her knowledge, and that the cases are considered closed. She said the fentanyl test "absolutely" should be done if there is reason to believe it is a factor in the death.

"Some of the ones I've had, the people that are associated with them would say they are heroin addicts. So I'm given that information up front, and then of course that's what we're looking for," she said.

Sgt. Pat Ross, spokesman for the Springfield Police Department, said investigators are aware of the fatal overdoses.

"I think we would be remiss if we didn't consider that this is somehow related" to the summer fentanyl-related overdoses in Chicago, Ross said.

He also said heroin users should educate themselves.

"I think it's safe to say heroin users know the risk involved in using this drug going into it," he said. "If, in fact, we have heroin that is tainted in some fashion, then certainly they need to be even more cautious when they're engaging in this conduct."

The coroner in Grundy County, a rural area about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, announced in August that he would begin screening for fentanyl after two fatal overdoses within a week were thought to be linked to heroin laced with the painkiller.

<hr class=postrule>
<center><small>Jayette Bolinski can be reached at 788-1530 or jayette.bolinski@sj-r.com.</small></center>

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Wayne County

Fentanyl blamed for rise in 2006 drug overdoses

<span class=postbigbold>Health officials: Fatalities highest ever at 550</span>

Iveory Perkins / The Detroit News
January 26, 2007

Health officials are blaming a spike of deaths linked to the powerful painkiller fentanyl for pushing drug overdose deaths in Wayne County to an all-time high.

The county's Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday reported more than 550 drug deaths in 2006, a 20 percent increase from 2005, when drug overdoses accounted for 457 deaths.

"We do believe that at some level the fentanyl issue is here to stay and that there may be other drugs that are corrupting the illegal drug supply," said Dr. Calvin Trent, a clinical psychologist for the Detroit Bureau of Substance Abuse.

"Until the fentanyl issue came up, we didn't really understand the overdose numbers."

Last year, Wayne County had more than 100 deaths due to fentanyl, a painkiller prescribed for cancer patients that can have 80 times the potency of morphine.

Oakland and Macomb counties are seeing increases in drug-related deaths as well, but medical examiners there don't categorize overdoses by drug type.

Deaths by drug poisoning in Oakland increased to 161 last year, up from 125 in 2005, said medical examiner L.J. Dragovic, who noted some cases from last year are still pending toxicology reports.

He estimated that drug-related deaths could reach 200 for 2006.

"This is an upward trend in deaths relative to drug abuse," Dragovic said. Although records don't track fentanyl related deaths, Dragovic said he has performed autopsies in which people died from using fentanyl patches that weren't prescribed.

Macomb recorded 147 drug-related deaths in 2006 with some cases still pending, up from 123 in 2005, said Tom Kalkofen, director of the Macomb County Health Department.

Wayne Sheriff Warren Evans touched on the fentanyl outbreak Thursday when his office burned more than $2.5 million worth of illegal drugs seized in raids.

Incinerated at an undisclosed location, the haul included 14 fentanyl patches, 416 grams of crack and 605 pounds of marijuana.

"The fact that we took them off the streets most likely saved lives," Evans said, "whether they may have been lost to the drug itself or the violent culture associated with them."

You can reach Iveory Perkins at (734) 462-2672 or iveory.perkins@detnews.com.