Pubdate: Thu, 04 Aug 2005
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

BILL MAY ALLOW STATE TO TRACK DRUG OVERDOSES

Statewide System Gains Support; Vigil Planned

Deaths from heroin and other opioids in Essex County have soared almost 400 
percent over a 12-year period, prompting law enforcement and antidrug 
groups to support a bill on Beacon Hill that would create a statewide 
overdose tracking system.

The proposed legislation would require hospitals and clinics to report 
overdoses of opioids within 24 hours to the state Department of Public 
Health. Opioids include heroin, the prescription drug OxyContin, and other 
drugs derived from or chemically similar to opium. A victim's name would be 
withheld, but their age, sex, race and the type of drug that caused the 
overdose would have to be reported, officials said.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey endorsed the legislation, now before the 
Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, during a visit last week to Union 
Hospital in Lynn, which voluntarily tracks overdoses treated at its 
emergency room. State Senator Thomas M. McGee, a Lynn Democrat, cosponsored 
the bill. Information would be entered into a statewide database and made 
available to law enforcement officials to help them identify where illicit 
drugs are being bought and sold.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, who calls heroin abuse a 
major threat to public safety, said data collected under the bill could be 
a valuable tool.

"No one is looking to handcuff someone lying on a gurney who is being 
treated for a drug overdose," said Blodgett, who testified in favor of the 
bill in June. "We're going after the players, the dealers, who are selling 
this stuff on our streets."

The number of fatal overdoses from heroin and other opioids increased from 
nine in 1990 to 44 in 2002, according to the most recent data available 
from the state Department of Public Health. The increase is one reason CAB 
Health & Recovery Services of Peabody will hold a candlelight vigil at 8 
p.m. tomorrow on Lynn Common. The vigil is being held to remember more than 
100 victims from Essex County who have died of drug overdoses since 1991. 
It has also been planned to call attention to the need to combat illicit 
drug use in the region, an organizer said.

"This bill could really help us," said Mary Wheeler, an HIV/outreach worker 
for CAB in Lynn. "We're out on the street, talking to people who struggle 
with this [drug addiction]. If we can find out exactly what street, or 
neighborhood, an overdose victim is from, the police will have a better 
chance of getting the bad heroin off the street."

The healthcare industry has been slower to embrace the bill, however. Early 
concerns focused on patient confidentiality. Some hospitals and clinics 
were concerned that a patient's right to privacy would be violated if an 
overdose victim's name was reported to state officials, they said.

But because the current version of the legislation does not require a 
patient's name, Social Security number, or other personal identification to 
be submitted, the bill is easier to support, local hospital officials said.

"It's very proactive," said Lori Hempstead, director of emergency services 
at Northeast Health Systems, owner of Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert 
Hospital in Gloucester. "It won't jeopardize patient confidentiality, which 
was a major concern for us."

North Shore Medical Center, which runs Union Hospital and Salem Hospital, 
supports the bill, but said patient confidentiality remains a top priority.

"We're committed to gathering the data," said David King, a medical center 
spokesman. "But we're being very careful to protect a patient's identity."

A spokeswoman for Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, which treats 10 to 
20 overdose victims a month, said that if the bill becomes law, the 
information could be compiled easily.

The candlelight vigil will put a human face on many of the statistics. 
Speakers include an Everett man and a Saugus woman whose family members 
have died from overdoses. Wheeler, who recently lost two friends to 
overdoses, will deliver the keynote address.

"I'm going to talk a little bit about the politics of drug prevention and 
treatment, but it will be with a lot of heart," she said. "People who have 
lost a loved one to an overdose should not feel ashamed. We're trying to 
remind people that those who have died were someone's loved ones, a son, a 
daughter, a friend. They're not just another junkie."

White vigil candles will be lighted in memory of more than 100 victims. 
Their first names and last initial will be read. Wheeler doesn't know how 
many people will attend, but knows most will carry a memory in their heart.

"A woman called to let us know she's coming," Wheeler said. "She told us 
that her daughter passed away in 1993, but she couldn't be with her, 
because she was in the hospital. When she got out of the hospital, her 
daughter's ashes were handed to her in a box. She never had any closure. 
She told us, 'This is going to be my daughter's funeral."' 
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