Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jan 2005
Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Contact:  http://www.bdtonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1483
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

OVERDOSE: DRUG PROBLEM ESCALATES IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

People are overdosing on prescription drugs in Southwest Virginia in
record numbers. In a 10-year period, from 1993 to 2003, overdoses on
prescription medications tripled from 66 to 213.

It's time to sound the alarm.

For years, local law enforcement agencies and Tazewell County
Commonwealth Attorney Dennis Lee have battled the illegal drug problem
in Southwest Virginia. They bust dealers, charge robbers stealing
goods to buy drugs and indict those who forge checks in order to
support their illegal habit.

But a new report by the Virginia Department of Health identifying the
number of people who have overdosed on prescription medication brings
to light a new horrific problem associated with those tangled in the
terrible web of drug addition - death.

Almost 80 percent of the deaths in Southwest Virginia associated with
prescription medication were accidental overdoses, the rest were suicides.

Perhaps most horrendous is how the overdose death rates in Southwest
Virginia are far and above those in the more metropolitan, urban areas
of Northern Virginia. The health department study found death rates in
southwestern districts 1 and 2 were between 300 and 600 percent higher
than the drug death rate in the city of Richmond.

The study also indicates these deaths were accidental, and the victims
did not intend to die.

The leading prescription drug causing the accidental deaths was
methadone, which was present in 44.6 percent of the deaths. (Methadone
should not be confused with methamphetamine, or "Meth," a stimulate
drug widely reported to be abused in Virginia and West Virginia.)
Other drugs used and their percentages present during the deaths
included: hydrocodone,16.1 percent; oxycodone, 10.7 percent; fentanyl
(a synthetic opioid), 8.3 percent; and propoxyphens, 3.6 percent.

"This is a many-sided problem with consequences of human grief,
suffering and social and economic costs that reach far beyond the
death of the overdose victim," John Dreyzehner, M.D., with the
Virginia Department of Health, said. "There are parents, spouses,
siblings and especially children devastated by these losses and by the
toll illegal drug use takes on them and our communities - but I am
afraid the deaths this study reports on may be just the tip of the
iceberg."

Sadly, we must concur. Drug use is rampant in our communities on both
sides of the state line.

Richlands Police Chief William Puckett, who has worked closely with
the Tazewell County Narcotics Task Force, estimates "75 to 80 percent
of the crime in this county is tied back to the illegal drug trade,"
citing crimes such as larcenies and forged checks that may be
committed in order to support a drug addition.

Commonwealth Attorney Lee said officers have standing orders to
investigate any overdose death as a potential murder case. "If we can
show who supplied the drugs that led to the death of someone, we have
in the past and we will in the future prosecute that person for felony
murder."

We agree with Lee's tough stance on the drug problems in Tazewell
County. In the first eight months of 2004, there have been nine
overdoses in Tazewell County, and Lee expects that number to jump to
13 or 14 by the end of the year.

He calls it an epidemic. We agree.

Lee, police officers and others in the criminal justice system are
working overtime to combat the drug problem. But they can't do it alone.

The Virginia General Assembly will convene Jan. 12. We call on all
Southwest Virginia legislators and Gov. Mark Warner to take a long,
hard look at the drug problem in this region, and work to develop and
fund innovative solutions to this problem.

We are now at a crisis situation. And it is only going to get worse.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin