Pubdate: Sat, 03 Aug 2002
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2002 Dayton Daily News
Contact:  http://www.activedayton.com/partners/ddn/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Author: Martha Hardcastle

DRUG ABUSERS TURNING TO MEDICAL PATCHES FOR HIGHS

Three Overdoses In Brookville Reveal Problem

People stealing and then eating patches used to administer powerful 
painkillers such as morphine and OxyContin is the latest form of drug abuse 
to hit the Miami Valley.

On Thursday, three Brookville men were rushed to the hospital for treatment 
after Brookville Police Chief Andrew Papanek said they apparently ate pain 
patches normally used to administer drugs through the skin. He said the 
drug ingested was Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate 10 times more powerful than 
morphine.

The men, admitted to intensive care on Thursday, were released Friday.

Law-enforcement officials and drug-abuse professionals said they are 
starting to see more and more patch abuse.

John Burke, vice president of the National Association of Drug Diversion 
Investigators and commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force, said 
there has been a significant increase in patch abuse recently. He said the 
street value of a Fentanyl patch is $25 to $40.

"As the prescribing of the patches goes up, the diversion goes up," he 
said. "In Ironton, they actually had three deaths from this in the past six 
months."

Harvey A. Siegal, a medical sociologist and director of the Center for 
Interventions, Treatment and Addictions Research at Wright State 
University, said this is the first he has heard of such abuse in the Dayton 
area.

"People will actually take this patch, extract the gel and squeeze it out 
and get themselves in a lot of trouble," he said. "Overdose is very 
possible. It's like getting a day's worth of narcotics in a single dose."

Other Schedule II drugs administered in this way include morphine and 
OxyContin. Schedule II drugs have the highest restriction of any 
prescription drug and have the highest propensity to cause abuse and/or 
addiction.

Although the patches can be stolen from pharmacies or patients before use, 
used patches contain up to 60 percent of the drug, and abusers have been 
known to take them from trash containers at health-care centers and hospitals.

"Sometimes, people will get jobs in nursing homes just to have access to 
these drugs," Siegal said.

He suggests that anyone disposing of used patches cut them into strips and 
flush them down a toilet to prevent accidental or intentional ingestion.

"What if somebody has them in the garbage and the dog gets to them?" he 
said. "You could have a dead dog."

Dave Connolly, resident agent in charge at the Dayton office of the federal 
Drug Enforcement Administration, was not familiar with such abuse of 
patches in this area. "I haven't heard that one," he said. "It sounds like 
a new method. They could think it's like a nicotine patch, but they could 
get a fatal dose because of this."

Papanek said his department is continuing to investigate.

"The investigation continues, and depending on the outcome of the 
investigation, it will determine whether charges are forthcoming," he said.
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