REPORT: DRUG DEATHS ON THE RISE

Study Shows Venango County Residents Are Using More Addictive,
Dangerous Drugs Than Ever Before

(Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series on drug
overdose deaths and drug use in Venango County).

A toxic trend has Venango County in its grips; drug overdoses are
claiming more lives in this pastoral nook of northwestern
Pennsylvania than ever before.

In addition, reports show that more people are using more potent and
addictive drugs than in years past.

So what is happening in Venango County? What drugs are being used?
And what is being done to curb the "drug problem?"

What's Happening

John Greggs has been the Venango County coroner since 1993. But it
wasn't until five years ago that he began to see an upswing in
drug-related deaths, he said.

"I'd say in the last five years we have seen a continuous increase in
higher numbers," he said. "It just seems to be getting worse."

Last year, drug overdoses claimed 15 lives in Venango County, Greggs said.

Of those 15, most were accidental overdoses, while a few were
suicides, he said. Many of them were the result of combined drug
toxicity - swallowing not one specific drug but a killer combination
of various drugs and alcohol.

Fighting crime on the streets of Oil City - the county's
most-populated city - police Chief Robert Wenner said overdose deaths
"have become too common, especially among young people."

But it isn't just young people overdosing.

Last year there was a surprising number of people in their 30s, 40s
and 50s who died of drug overdoses, Greggs said.

What experts are seeing is that drugs no longer affect just one type of person.

As with drug-related deaths, drug use is across the board, experts
agree. Men, women, the very young, the middle age to older crowd,
mothers, fathers, junior high school students, their older siblings,
the poor and the wealthy are using drugs.

Venango County residents are using more addictive, dangerous drugs
than ever before, one study shows.

Heroin use among those receiving drug treatment in the county more
than doubled since last year, according to the report, which also
claims heroin, cocaine and the prescription drug OxyContin are
forging ahead of alcohol in drug trend usage.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is happening. Perhaps it
is because drugs are easier to obtain than ever before.

Illegal drugs are big business in rural communities where they are
able to fetch three to four times as much money than they do in
larger cities, according to Wenner.

This has brought drug dealers from larger cities scrambling to set up
business in places like Venango County where they can earn more
money. When one drug dealer is swept off the streets and thrown in
jail, another is waiting to take his place, Wenner said.

While some users prefer illegal drugs, others opt to get their high
from prescription drugs found in friends' and relatives' medicine cabinets.

Still others opt to mix up killer drug and alcohol cocktails -
snorting, swallowing, injecting and guzzling to get high and
sometimes flooding their systems with deadly combinations.

Deadly trends

In the past few years, Venango and surrounding counties have
struggled to get a handle on an increase in methamphetamine labs in
the area. Meth "cooks" combine certain over-the-counter ingredients
to make a batch of the drug, a process that is dangerous, often explosive.

But the meth-making process became more difficult when certain cold
medicines used to produce the drug were pulled from pharmacy and
grocery store shelves and placed behind the counter where their sale
could be more closely monitored.

The number of methamphetamine labs have seemed to taper off recently,
according to Wenner. But that doesn't mean drug use is tapering off too.

"Drugs are an ever-changing game," Wenner said.

People are still using illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine and
heroin, but they are also always finding new ways to get high.

At a recent neighborhood block association meeting on Oil City's
North Side, an agent with the attorney general's office listed
prescription medications as one of the city's most threatening drugs.

Young people, especially, are experimenting with prescription
medications. Usually they are finding and swallowing pills found in
their parents' and relatives' medicine cabinets, not knowing what
they are ingesting.

The agent encouraged anyone with old prescription bottles to flush
the remaining pills down the toilet, instead of hanging on to them.

Another popular but deadly trend is the improper use of fentanyl patches.

Fentanyl is a narcotic medicine used to treat chronic pain. The drug
comes in the form of a patch that is placed on the skin surface and
releases fentanyl into body fats, which then releases the drug slowly
into the blood stream.

According to law enforcement officers, some people looking to get
high find discarded patches then ingest the substance inside.

This practice can have deadly results.

"These pain patches will absolutely kill someone," the agent said.

Some prescription drugs are becoming so popular and proving so
addictive that users are using violence to obtain them.

The last few armed robberies in Oil City have occurred not at gas
stations or banks, but at pharmacies where people threaten clerks
with violence if they don't hand over the prescription drug
OxyContin, Wenner said.

One of the most publicized cases took place on a January 2003 evening
when a man walked into the Rite Aid drug store on East Second Street
and held a clerk hostage while he cooked the drug and injected it
with a needle.

Matthew Baugher told police he had a gun and reportedly overdosed on
the drug because he didn't want to go back to jail. He is now serving
up to 10 years in prison for kidnapping and robbery.

Although he overdosed, Baugher was treated at UPMC Northwest after
releasing his hostage and did not die as a result of his overdose.

But like many other drugs, OxyContin has potentially deadly results
when misused.

"OxyContin isn't meant to be crushed up and snorted," Wenner said.

By The Numbers

Statistics from one study confirm Venango County residents are using
more potent and addictive drugs like heroin, cocaine and OxyContin
than ever before.

Eight years ago, alcohol was considered the county's main drug
problem with 66 percent of the people entering drug and alcohol
treatment seeking help for alcohol use, according to a report from
the Venango County Substance Abuse Program and Venango County Tobacco
Prevention Program. Today, it is still the main problem drug but by a
much smaller margin - 37 percent of those entering treatment seek
help for alcohol use.

Now, statistics show 30 percent of those entering treatment are
abusing and addicted to heroin and other opiates like OxyContin.

Between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, 169 people received
treatment for heroin use in Venango County, according to the report.
The year before, 73 people were treated for using the drug. Compare
that with two people treated for using the drug in 1998-99 calendar year.

In that same year, 94 people were treated for cocaine/crack use. The
year before, 76 people received treatment for the drug, according to
the report.

"The implications of this are devastating. These drugs are highly
addictive and can easily become the main focus of a person's life,
leaving their children, spouse and parents behind in their pursuit of
these drugs.

"The fact that these are illegal substances forces these folks to
begin a life of criminal activity that has extreme negative effects
on them, their families and the community. We see young men and women
with their lives ravaged by use, families destroyed and children left
to fend for themselves," Venango County Substance Abuse Program
Administrator Bonnie Summers wrote in her report.

Not only does it appear more people are using more dangerous drugs,
but numbers also show that women are using drugs at nearly the same
rates as males.

Of the 169 people treated for heroin use, 96 were male and 73 were
female, three of whom were pregnant, according to the report.

Of those 94 people treated for cocaine/crack use, 55 were male and 39
were female, according to the report. Two of the females were
pregnant at the time, the report said.

"Women are the main caregivers in a family especially for infants and
young children, so the effects of these drugs many times result in
neglect and abuse of these children and the family unit. The sad fact
is many times the mothers are not even aware of the suffering their
children endure because their brains have become so overcome by the
drug abuse," Summers wrote.

Although drug use seems to be increasing, there is hope, according to Summers.

"Many of the men and women, young and older, who come through our
doors, come to understand themselves and this disease, they reach out
to their families, they become responsible parents, they recover and
respond to life and are productive, contributing residents of Venango
County," she wrote.