Pot times July 17, 2005
King County Drug Deaths Hit 7-Year Peak In 04
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1128/a02.htmlNewshawk: Herb
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 KING COUNTY DRUG DEATHS HIT 7-YEAR PEAK IN 04
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:
opinion@seattletimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Ari Bloomekatz
Drug-involved deaths in King County rose by 36 percent in 2004 to the highest in
seven years, and deaths from prescription drugs and cocaine were up
substantially, according to a University of Washington report released
yesterday.
The study, by the UW's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, helps confirm a trend
of rising deaths from prescription opiates both in King County and across the
country, said the lead researcher, Caleb Banta-Green.
"Prescriptions have gone up so largely in our community. They're
publicized, they're on TV ... and that's fine," Banta-Green said.
"But people need to understand that those are strong [drugs] and can be
lethal."
According to the study, conducted twice a year, King County had 253 drug deaths
in 2004, up from 186 in 2003. King County had 92 cocaine-related deaths in
2004, a 10-year peak. And one of every five of all drug deaths involved a
combination of over-the-counter or prescription drugs with other illicit
substances.
King County had 118 prescription-opiate deaths in 2004, up from 84 in 2003 and
28 in 1997.
Drug-related deaths are also on the rise in Snohomish County, according to
death-certificate data collected by the state Department of Social and Health
Services. There were 61 drug-related deaths in 2000 in Snohomish County
and 87 in 2003, the most recent year for which statistics were available.
Banta-Green is also part of a national network of researchers from 21 large
metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco, New Orleans and Philadelphia, that
produce similar studies. All the cities have reported an increase in
health problems from prescription opiates, Banta-Green said.
In the Boston area, for example, prescription-opiate-related deaths have risen
over the past five or six years, said Dan Dooley, a researcher with the Boston
Public Health Commission. And at the University of Texas, Austin,
researcher Jane Maxwell said she has seen similar increases in the use of
prescription opiates, particularly Zanax, and a rise in deaths from such drugs.
Banta-Green said some prescription-drug deaths are from users taking too much of
their own medicine, but other users obtain the drugs from other people's
medicine cabinets. So he advises that people treat their prescription
drugs as carefully as they would weapons in their homes.
While prescription-drug deaths are on the rise, cocaine deaths have fluctuated
over the past decade. The 92 cocaine deaths in King County last year
compare with 66 in 1997 and 52 in 2003. Banta-Green said he is concerned
the dialogue surrounding cocaine abuse, which disproportionately affects black
people, is waning. Drug-policy decisions, he said, should focus on all
kinds of drug abuse, not just recently popular drugs such as methamphetamine.
King County had 18 methamphetamine deaths last year, the same as in 2003.
Since 1997, there have been 83 methamphetamine deaths in King County, compared
to 572 cocaine deaths and 759 heroin deaths in the same period.
African Americans make up 5 percent of the King County population, but represent
21 percent of cocaine-involved deaths and 42 percent of cocaine reports at
hospital emergency rooms, the study said.
Rodney Benson, special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency, said that while large quantities of methamphetamine have
been arriving in the Northwest, cocaine remains a constant problem for law
enforcement.
Benson said he has lately seen that individual drug traffickers are importing
several types drugs, rather than just one or two types.
"We'll see a shipment of meth coming ... in the same compartment
we'll see black-tar heroin, and we'll see cocaine," Benson said.
