KING COUNTY DRUG DEATHS HIT 7-YEAR PEAK IN 04

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.