Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jul 2005
Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Eagle-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.eagletribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129
Author: Marjory  Sherman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG DEATHS SHOW DRAMATIC INCREASE

Heroin and opiates, often in toxic combination with alcohol,  claimed 
the lives of more than 200 people North of Boston and in Southern New 
Hampshire in 2003 and 2004.

The dramatic death toll reflects the consequences of drug traffickers 
flooding the region with potent, inexpensive heroin and an explosion 
in abuse of prescription Oxycontin tablets as available as your 
grandmother's medicine cabinet. Among the dead were teenagers and 
20-somethings who graduated from snorting crushed OxyContin pills to 
injecting some of the $4-a-bag ultrapure heroin readily available.

Families are left to mourn the dead -- a Marblehead teen athlete dead 
from OxyContin poisoning, a former newspaper carrier and football 
player who died when he tried heroin for the first time, the beloved 
college-age daughter of a Lynn firefighter.

Meanwhile, the best minds in law, medicine and education struggle to 
contain the problem and find help for those most in need.

Data released in recent weeks confirm what some say is an epidemic of 
heroin and Oxycontin overdoses.

* Massachusetts reported a sixfold increase in deaths from narcotics 
in the past 13 years. More people in Massachusetts die from drug 
overdoses than  in motor vehicle crashes, according to a recent 
Department of Public Health report on opioids. In 2003, some 574 
people died of drug-related causes and 521  in car accidents.

* New Hampshire drug deaths tripled in a decade, with 114 such cases 
reported in 2004, including 86 where heroin and other opiates were 
used,  according to the office of the state medical examiner.

* The rate of drug-related deaths in Essex and Rockingham counties is 
higher than every other nearby geographic region except Suffolk 
County -- which includes Boston -- according to a June report by the 
Drug Abuse Warning Network  of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Administration. Essex County counts 126 deaths per 
million, Rockingham County 107, and Suffolk County  194.

* In 2003, there were 106 drug misuse deaths and suicides in Essex 
County and 37 in Rockingham County in New Hampshire, the June report 
shows. From his first days in office in 2003, Essex County District 
Attorney Jonathan Blodgett was stunned to learn the enormity of the 
problem. His first  clue was a meeting of police chiefs he had 
assembled to discuss important law enforcement issues. Heroin 
overdoses, both lethal and not, were their biggest concern. "The 
first step was awareness," Blodgett recalled. "I found out a lot of 
people were aware of this, but it was a dark secret. People didn't 
want to talk about it." Blodgett would go into schools to lead 
meetings about drug abuse, and people would approach him afterward to 
share concerns about their nieces and nephews and neighbors who were 
addicted to opiates or OxyContin. "It became apparent that this was 
not a problem just in the urban centers of Lawrence and Lynn," he 
said. "It was across the board." He heard stories of high school 
students who would steal OxyContin from their grandparents or buy it 
from a friend. When the cost became prohibitive at $80 a  pill, they 
would turn to heroin at $4 a bag.

"What was shocking was the breadth of the problem across 
socioeconomic lines, across the communities, across the county," 
Blodgett said. "It was really eye-opening to see how bad a problem it was."

In New Hampshire, James Chamdalares of the alcohol and substance 
abuse bureau said the rising rate of heroin use adds to the shortage 
of beds in government  treatment facilities.

"We've been hearing for a while that the use of heroin has been 
increasing," he said. "We are utilizing our resources as best we can, 
to as many people as we  can possibly accommodate. Most of our 
treatment facilities are at capacity." By putting numbers to the 
heart-wrenching stories of drug overdoses, officials hope to generate 
more government money for treatment and  prevention. Blodgett said 
that state police investigators assigned to his office estimate that 
170 people were killed by opiates or by a combination of opiates and 
alcohol in 2003 and 2004. Many of those cases were in affluent 
suburban communities, including Andover and North Andover, he said. 
Even that number is an undercount, the district attorney said. 
Blodgett believes there are as many as 20 percent to 25 percent more 
fatal opiate overdoses, but those deaths are reported as heart 
attacks or organ failure,  partly to protect the privacy of families.

"I'm absolutely convinced there's more than that," he said. The 
district attorney supports state legislation that would require 
hospitals to report overdoses, both lethal and nonlethal, to law 
enforcement authorities.

"We are trying to ask the hospitals to be open," he said. "It is 
important to get information in real time to the streets, and to help 
people get the medical  treatment they need. Until we have the true 
numbers, we're not going to be able  to get the funding we need for 
beds (for substance abuse)." Contrary to what hospital officials 
fear, he said, "we are not looking to handcuff them to the gurneys."

While hospitals like the one in Lynn report an upswing in heroin 
overdoses, Dr. Patrick Curran said he has seen the opposite in the 
emergency department at  Lawrence General Hospital. He has seen only 
five overdose cases in five months,  none of them fatal. That is a 
far cry from the days a decade ago when hordes of  people would show 
up at the emergency room, sick from the strychnine and 
other  chemicals cut into poor quality heroin.

Curran wondered whether the overdoses today are so lethal that people 
die at home, never making it to the hospital.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health report on escalating 
deaths from heroin and other narcotics comes at a time when nearly 
$11 million has been cut over three years from money to treat and 
prevent drug and alcohol abuse. The  administration of Gov. Mitt 
Romney recently increased funding by $9 million for  the substance 
abuse bureau, but some say there are still not enough treatment  beds 
to care for people with addictions.

The state is now aiming to reach out to parents of young children in 
the third, fourth and fifth grades, to point out that youngsters 
model their behavior on what they see and hear at home.

"While we've been really concerned with heroin and OxyContin," said 
Michael Botticelli of the Massachusetts Health Department substance 
abuse bureau, "We also know the earlier kids use, the likelier they 
are to develop significant problems. That hasn't changed. What has 
changed is what they use, and that's a  matter of culture and 
availability. It used to be crack cocaine. Before that it  was 
marijuana, and before that it was alcohol." The Public Health 
Department is trying to appeal in a new advertising campaign to 
parents of young children to send a message that talking with 
children and the behavior they model are crucial.

"There is some evidence that baby boomer parents seem to be somewhat 
reluctant to talk with their own kids about their own behavior," 
Botticelli  said. He recommends that parents tell children, "If I had 
to do it over again, I wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't want you to do it."
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MAP posted-by: Beth