Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2002
Source: Sunday Gazette-Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2002, Sunday Gazette-Mail
Contact:  http://sundaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1404
Author: Tom Searls

DYING FOR DRUGS

Fatal Overdoses UP More Than 300% In W.VA. - In 3 Years

UNINTENTIONAL drug overdose deaths in West Virginia have risen by more than 
300 percent in a three-year period, alarming addiction specialists and 
state health officials.

That figure is probably even higher because in the case of a large number 
of the overdose deaths, officials could not determine if they were 
accidental or suicide. Addiction professionals believe most of those cases 
are actually accidental overdoses.

"They're just trying to get high, and they overdose," said Dr. Rolly 
Sullivan, professor of behavior medicine and psychiatry at West Virginia 
University and director of the university's Addiction Services.

The huge jump from 1999 to 2001 comes as no surprise to him and others who 
work in drug addiction.

"I would say that, based on the past couple of years and the amount of 
drugs in this state, it doesn't surprise me," Sullivan said.

"It would appear to me that it's primarily in the category of narcotics," 
said Dr. Henry Taylor, head of the state Bureau of Public Health.

Taylor called the numbers "a significant increase in narcotics deaths."

Public Health officials have not broken down the results by particular 
drugs, but categories show the largest increase in deaths is attributed to 
narcotic drugs and a mixture of those with other drugs, frequently alcohol.

"A lot of times it would be a combination of alcohol and other drugs and 
people didn't understand that they were getting into 'one plus one equals 
three,'" said Joe Deegan, an addiction professional and public policy 
chairman for the state chapter of the Association for Addiction Professionals.

Taylor plans to provide the figures to lawmakers Monday during interim 
legislative meetings. "I'm saying [it has risen] 300 percent over three 
years," he said.

State officials have battled with the pharmaceutical drug OxyContin. The 
highly addictive, pain-killing drug has been especially dominant in 
Southern West Virginia, where statistics show the highest increase in 
overdose deaths. The drug has not been as popular in central and northern 
sections of the state.

"I think it has something to do with the fact it was marketed so heavily to 
the docs down there," Sullivan said.

He has been seeing fewer people addicted to that drug in the past year. 
"Two years ago in August was the worst I've ever seen," he said, calling 
the problem then a "candy land" for drug abusers.

'It's bad down here'

If there is a slowdown in its abuse, he believes it is because doctors are 
more aware of the drug being abused. "By now, doctors have gotten 
uncomfortable with writing prescriptions for it, and it's become a little 
harder to get it."

In some areas of Southern West Virginia, police are still seeing more, not 
less, drug abuse and they say it is still mainly OxyContin.

"It's bad down here," said State Police Sgt. Doug Berkel at the Jesse 
detachment in Wyoming County. "We've probably had six or seven [overdose 
deaths] in the past four or five months."

Berkel believes those needing pain-killing drugs go to several doctors to 
get more than one prescription, then sell the remainder. With high 
unemployment in many southern counties, it serves as a way to make a living 
for some.

In Summers County, Trooper A.S. Reed recently investigated the overdose 
death of a 16-year-old boy. Reed believes the teen was using OxyContin, but 
toxicology test results have not been released. He also believes more 
people are dying from drug overdoses this year than before.

"No doubt in my mind," Reed said. "Myself, I've actually probably worked 
more, or seen more, this year than all of last year combined."

But other drugs have popped up almost as quickly. Sullivan is now seeing 
many abusing the pain-relieving drug Fentanyl. It usually comes in patches 
and is time-released.

Drug addicts use syringes to draw the drug out of the patches, or boil it 
down and extract the drug. "It's way more potent than Oxy," Sullivan said.

Those overdosing on that drug "go into a big sleep, and that's it," he said.

Drug problems are not new to the southern part of the state, Deegan said. 
"Chronically, there's been prescription drug problems [in the south]," he said.

About 20 years ago, doctors regularly prescribed opiates to patients in the 
southern counties, he said. That led to more in-patient treatment centers, 
generally in hospitals. Gradually, as the problem subsided in the 1980s, 
those programs also went away.

Then came the OxyContin influx of the late 1990s. "It was like we didn't 
remember we had a problem just 15 to 20 years ago," Deegan said.

Now, most addicts searching for help spend a few days in facilities drying 
out, then are sent back onto the street only to become addicted again. 
Deegan said real help for addicts takes long-term care.

"The longevity of the care seems to be the thing that works," he said.

Sullivan doesn't disagree. "In West Virginia, it's just ridiculous. It is 
so ridiculous we just do not have residential facilities for addicts."

"I'd be surprised if we don't see this incident of overdoses continue going 
up until we get more treatment available," said Deegan.

Taylor said it's also costly to society not to treat addicts. He points to 
a national study which shows that for every $1 invested in substance abuse 
treatment, it saves $4 to $7 in reduced crime and criminal justice costs.

West Virginia spends about $18.8 million annually on abuse treatment, most 
of which comes from the federal government.

While the state recently opened an outpatient treatment center in Mercer 
County, Sullivan said a halfway house for female addicts in Wheeling, one 
of only two in the state, may close soon. Charleston has such a facility 
for men, but not women.

"There's still a stigma for women to even seek treatment," said Deegan, who 
is working on a project to bring a halfway house for women addicts to 
Charleston.

"We definitely need more resources, and specifically we need to focus the 
tremendous amount of resources being spent throughout the system," Taylor said.

Most abusers aren't teens

Abusers of narcotics are generally not teen-agers. Statistics show those 
dying from drug abuse are men in their late 20s to late 40s, and women 
generally in their 30s.

Death usually doesn't occur the first time they overdose, Sullivan said. 
"The average person who dies from an opiate overdose had OD'd several times 
before and has not died," he said.

Experience with drug abuse does not always help. "It's just because they're 
so darned unpredictable ... you don't know what you're getting," Sullivan said.

Deegan said it is usually 10 to 15 years before narcotics abusers have 
problems with addiction. They have "a loss of control in their 30s and 
40s," leading to the loss of jobs and families.

For men, that usually takes longer than women, he said. "For women, 
physically, it doesn't take as long a time for their bodies to not to be 
able to handle it," he said.

Deegan believes the state has a good plan to fight drug addiction with 
outpatient community programs. Those, though, are slow in being developed.

"Programs work as they are implemented," he said. 
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