Pubdate: Sat, 19 Mar 2005
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Amy Blakely, St. Bernard Bureau Chief
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

PARISH TACKLES A DRUG-ABUSE EPIDEMIC

For years, St. Bernard Parish officials have been wringing their hands over 
the high number of overdose deaths in our small parish.

This week, the hand-wringing was replaced by elbow grease as the Parish 
Council and the Sheriff's Office announcing bold steps to curb the tide of 
overdose deaths.

On Tuesday, the Parish Council took action to limit the number of pain 
clinics in the parish. The council issued a moratorium on new pain 
management clinics, and officials say they will now turn their attention to 
tweaking zoning laws to make it more difficult for any more of these 
clinics to open in the parish.

St. Bernard Parish already has four pain management clinics, Councilman 
Craig Taffaro has said.

While officials haven't linked drugs obtained at any of these clinics to 
recent overdoses, they warn that such clinics tend to prescribe and 
dispense painkillers and methadone -- drugs that can be deadly, especially 
when mixed.

At the same time, officials with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office 
described plans under way to form a state central registry of narcotic 
prescriptions that would help prevent "doctor shopping," in which people go 
from doctor to doctor trying to get the same prescription drugs.

Statistics recently provided by Coroner Bryan Bertucci show that in St. 
Bernard Parish, which has a population of less than 70,000, there were 36 
overdose deaths in 2004, 37 in 2003 and 40 deaths in 2002. There's no 
estimate on the number of people who have overdosed in recent years but 
survived after being brought to hospitals, Bertucci said, although 
officials at Chalmette Medical Center have said their emergency room and 
intensive care unit are, at times, overrun with overdose cases.

A few overdoses are from illegal drugs such as heroin or cocaine, but the 
majority of the cases result from mixing prescription drugs including 
methadone, Xanbar, Vicodin, the muscle-relaxer Soma and, sometimes, 
alcohol, Bertucci said. While some of the deaths have been suicides, most 
appear to be overdoses caused by "recreational use of prescription pills." 
Methadone continues to be the biggest underlying cause of the problem, he said.

Bertucci said many of those dying of overdoses are mature adults, in the 
40- to 50-year-old range. The youngest victim last year was 15, while three 
victims were 57, he said.

Bertucci also said many of those who died were unemployed or on disability 
and, based on discussions with family members, he said some suffered from 
lack of self-esteem, lack of goals, no self-discipline or no concept of 
delayed gratification.

On Tuesday, a handful of families touched by the local drug problem 
attended the council meeting to cheer the Parish Council as it imposed the 
moratorium on pain management clinics.

"This is a no brainer for y'all," said Russell "Rusty" Vucinovich Jr. of 
Meraux, whose 18-year-old son, Russell "Lil Rusty" Vucinovich III, died an 
apparent accidental overdose of prescription drugs. "There is not one of 
you who don't know somebody that has been affected" by drug abuse.

While the council's action attacks the problem from one angle, the effort 
to create a state centralized prescription database could be even more 
far-reaching in preventing prescription drug abuse and deaths.

At Tuesday's council meeting, Capt. Pete Tufaro said the St. Bernard Parish 
Sheriff's Office is working with State Police, the federal Drug Enforcement 
Agency, and the state's Medical Review Board and Pharmaceutical Board to 
form a state central registry of prescriptions. The effort is still in its 
infancy -- only a handful of meetings have been held, Tufaro said -- and 
some officials have said privacy issues may prove to be stumbling block.

But, if Louisiana succeeds in creating a centralized database, as 28 other 
states already have, patients who try to abuse drugs by doctor shopping 
could be thwarted.

While it's unrealistic to think these measures will stop all drug abuse and 
drug deaths in our community, the Parish Council, the Sheriff's Office and 
their partner state and federal agencies deserve praise for trying to find 
strong medicine to fight the problem.
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