NUMBER OF DRUG-RELATED DEATHS CONTINUES UPWARD TREND

* As Of Early December, Drugs Were Involved In 226 Fatalities In Oregon,
And Heroin Is Again Listed As The Most Likely To Lead To Death

Wednesday, December 30 1998

By Peter Farrell of The Oregonian staff

As 1998 draws to a close, Oregon is again seeing a rise in the number of
drug-related deaths per year. And heroin continues to be the drug most
likely to lead to death.

"It's potent, it's lethal and it's cheap," said Gene Gray, the deputy
Multnomah County medical examiner who tracks drug deaths.

Gray said that as of early December, 226 deaths had been recorded as
drug-related. That compares with 221 in the state in 1997.

Drug deaths have averaged more than four per week this year but received
little attention compared with statewide homicides, which have averaged
about one a week in recent years, and the 80 Oregon deaths from AIDS last
year.

Heroin is the chief killer, in part, because the purity can vary. Addicts
taking their usual doses can end up killing themselves when they obtain
drugs that are purer than what is usually sold on the street.

Of the 226 deaths this year, 172 were heroin-related, 54 were related to
cocaine use and 47 involved methamphetamine. The numbers broken out by the
type of drug total more than 226 because 47 deaths involved a combination
of drugs, such as heroin and cocaine.

Nearly all of the heroin deaths involve overdoses, Gray said. The medical
examiner lists a death as drug-related when a drug is a significant factor
in the death. And that, Gray said, can include cases in which someone using
methamphetamine loses control or becomes violent and ends up being shot or
otherwise killed.

A public suicide involving a couple who were desperate to end their heroin
addiction is included in this year's total. Mora McGowan, 25, and her
fiance, Michael Douglas, 29, hanged themselves July 1 from the Steel Bridge
in downtown Portland. In a journal found on Douglas' body, he described the
couple's downward spiral since they had become addicted to heroin.

In some cases of confirmed long-term drug abuse, Gray said, a death might
be listed as drug-related even if the addict dies of heart disease, because
the heart disease clearly resulted from heroin use.

Since the introduction of tar heroin in the mid-1980s, there has been a
steady increase in drug-related deaths. Although police interventions early
in the decade sometimes cut the heroin supply so much that the number of
overdoses dropped, new suppliers filled the void. Drug deaths began to rise
from about one a week to three a week in the mid-1990s.

"The numbers just keep going up," Gray said.

Checked-by: Richard Lake