REPORT ON ILLICIT DRUG USE INCLUDES SUICIDES

But Authors Say Study Isn't Misleading

In 1997, 132 people died from overdoses of illicit drugs in Toronto, a
report released this week by the public health department says, but
the statistics aren't quite what they seem.

Among that number are suicides by people who overdosed on prescription
medications, the authors of Drug Use in Toronto 1999 say.

``Suicides weren't taken out of the equation, but maybe they should
be,'' said public health epidemiologist Joyce Bernstein, the report's
lead author.

Ed Adlaf, a scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
and one of three co-authors of the report, said he didn't think the
statistics paint a misleading picture of illicit drug use in Toronto.

Among the 51 people who died from overdoses of barbiturates or
sedatives in 1997 were 23 confirmed suicides, the report says.

Adlaf said that many or all might have obtained the drugs through
prescriptions, but he defended lumping the suicides together with
users of street drugs.

``Illicit use might include inappropriate use, and the fact that it's
for a suicide is by definition an inappropriate use,'' he said.

While one objective is to monitor the consumption of street drugs, the
report gives no indication which drugs caused each of the deaths.

``A lot of them are deaths caused by a combination of drugs,''
Bernstein said.

The report breaks down drug doses rather than deaths, Bernstein
explained.

That means the 27 drug-related deaths linked to cocaine weren't added
to the 36 involving heroin.

Instead, anyone who died with both cocaine and heroin in their bodies
gets counted twice in the report's statistics, Bernstein said.

And if any of the other illicit drugs are present, the dead person
would get counted three or more times.