Pubdate: Tue, 13 Feb 2007
Source: Patriot-News, The (PA)
Copyright: 2007 The Patriot-News
Contact:  http://www.patriot-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1630
Author: Matt Miller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

FATAL OVERDOSES BREAK RECORD, CORONER SAYS

CARLISLE - Deaths from accidental drug overdoses set an unsettling 
record in Cumberland County last year, according to Coroner Michael Norris.

Seventeen people died in 2006 from misusing prescription or illegal 
drugs, or mixtures of them, Norris said.

That tally far exceeds the prior record of eight accidental drug 
overdose deaths set in 2004, he said.

"This is the first time that drug deaths have shot up to that level," 
Norris said in his annual report to county commissioners yesterday.

It is too early to tell if the 2006 figure is an anomaly or the 
herald of an ominous trend, he said.

Overdose-death tallies secured from two other midstate coroners' 
offices painted a mixed picture.

Dr. Jeffrey Yocum, Lebanon County coroner, also voiced concern about 
a rise in such deaths. "There are certainly more drug-interaction 
deaths than we've had before," he said.

According to his annual report, there were eight such deaths in 
Lebanon last year -- three related to prescription medications and 
five from illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin and the designer 
narcotic Ecstasy.

York County logged 37 accidental drug-overdose deaths in 2006, six 
more than in 2005, said Vivian Howell, administrative assistant to 
Coroner Barry Bloss. Such deaths average in the 30s annually for the 
county, she said.

Statistics from Dauphin and Perry counties could not be obtained yesterday.

Norris said two of the Cumberland overdoses involved drugs prescribed 
to the victims.

The other 15 involved eight drugs, including alcohol, sometimes used 
in combination, he said. Those were methadone, fentanyl, oxycodone, 
darvon, Valium, cocaine and heroin, he said.

In October, Norris and District Attorney David Freed issued a public 
warning after two county residents died from ingesting mixtures of 
heroin laced with fentanyl, a high-powered painkiller used mostly in hospitals.
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