BILL MAY ALLOW STATE TO TRACK DRUG OVERDOSES

Statewide System Gains Support; Vigil Planned

Deaths from heroin and other opioids in Essex County have soared almost 400
percent over a 12-year period, prompting law enforcement and antidrug
groups to support a bill on Beacon Hill that would create a statewide
overdose tracking system.

The proposed legislation would require hospitals and clinics to report
overdoses of opioids within 24 hours to the state Department of Public
Health. Opioids include heroin, the prescription drug OxyContin, and other
drugs derived from or chemically similar to opium. A victim's name would be
withheld, but their age, sex, race and the type of drug that caused the
overdose would have to be reported, officials said.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey endorsed the legislation, now before the
Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, during a visit last week to Union
Hospital in Lynn, which voluntarily tracks overdoses treated at its
emergency room. State Senator Thomas M. McGee, a Lynn Democrat, cosponsored
the bill. Information would be entered into a statewide database and made
available to law enforcement officials to help them identify where illicit
drugs are being bought and sold.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, who calls heroin abuse a
major threat to public safety, said data collected under the bill could be
a valuable tool.

"No one is looking to handcuff someone lying on a gurney who is being
treated for a drug overdose," said Blodgett, who testified in favor of the
bill in June. "We're going after the players, the dealers, who are selling
this stuff on our streets."

The number of fatal overdoses from heroin and other opioids increased from
nine in 1990 to 44 in 2002, according to the most recent data available
from the state Department of Public Health. The increase is one reason CAB
Health & Recovery Services of Peabody will hold a candlelight vigil at 8
p.m. tomorrow on Lynn Common. The vigil is being held to remember more than
100 victims from Essex County who have died of drug overdoses since 1991.
It has also been planned to call attention to the need to combat illicit
drug use in the region, an organizer said.

"This bill could really help us," said Mary Wheeler, an HIV/outreach worker
for CAB in Lynn. "We're out on the street, talking to people who struggle
with this [drug addiction]. If we can find out exactly what street, or
neighborhood, an overdose victim is from, the police will have a better
chance of getting the bad heroin off the street."

The healthcare industry has been slower to embrace the bill, however. Early
concerns focused on patient confidentiality. Some hospitals and clinics
were concerned that a patient's right to privacy would be violated if an
overdose victim's name was reported to state officials, they said.

But because the current version of the legislation does not require a
patient's name, Social Security number, or other personal identification to
be submitted, the bill is easier to support, local hospital officials said.

"It's very proactive," said Lori Hempstead, director of emergency services
at Northeast Health Systems, owner of Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert
Hospital in Gloucester. "It won't jeopardize patient confidentiality, which
was a major concern for us."

North Shore Medical Center, which runs Union Hospital and Salem Hospital,
supports the bill, but said patient confidentiality remains a top priority.

"We're committed to gathering the data," said David King, a medical center
spokesman. "But we're being very careful to protect a patient's identity."

A spokeswoman for Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, which treats 10 to
20 overdose victims a month, said that if the bill becomes law, the
information could be compiled easily.

The candlelight vigil will put a human face on many of the statistics.
Speakers include an Everett man and a Saugus woman whose family members
have died from overdoses. Wheeler, who recently lost two friends to
overdoses, will deliver the keynote address.

"I'm going to talk a little bit about the politics of drug prevention and
treatment, but it will be with a lot of heart," she said. "People who have
lost a loved one to an overdose should not feel ashamed. We're trying to
remind people that those who have died were someone's loved ones, a son, a
daughter, a friend. They're not just another junkie."

White vigil candles will be lighted in memory of more than 100 victims.
Their first names and last initial will be read. Wheeler doesn't know how
many people will attend, but knows most will carry a memory in their heart.

"A woman called to let us know she's coming," Wheeler said. "She told us
that her daughter passed away in 1993, but she couldn't be with her,
because she was in the hospital. When she got out of the hospital, her
daughter's ashes were handed to her in a box. She never had any closure.
She told us, 'This is going to be my daughter's funeral."'