REPORT SHOWS BAY STATE SPIKE IN OPIOID DEATHS

The number of Bay Staters -especially young people - dying from
overdoses of heroin, OxyContin and other opioids has skyrocketed,
according to a new state report. Officials said 836 people died from
"poisonings" in 2003. Of those, 574 died from overdosing on the
class of drugs known as opioids. That's six times the number of Bay
Staters - 94 - who died of opioid overdoses in 1990.

Driving the spike is the cheap, high-purity heroin that hit
Massachusetts streets - and streets throughout New England - in the
mid to late 1990s. Health officials also have been concerned about
the number of OxyContin overdoses during the past five years.

"We've been very concerned in terms of young-adult use rates in
OxyContin," said Michael Botticelli, assistant commissioner for
substance abuse services at the state _Department of Public Health_
(http://news.bostonherald.com/search/?searchSite=recent&keyword=Department
of Public Health) . "We are always concerned when we see these kinds
of numbers," Botticelli said. Fatal opioid overdoses were highest
among Hispanics, the report shows. Injuries, which include drug
overdoses, car accidents and falls, were the No. 1 cause of death
among people under age 44, the report said. The report also shows
heart disease and cancer are still the leading causes of death in
Massachusetts, accounting for nearly half of all deaths. But
the good news is fewer Bay Staters are dying from the diseases.
Officials credit prevention initiatives and healthier lifestyles for
the decline. The life expectancy in Massachusetts is higher than the
national average. A woman born in the Bay State can expect to live
to age 81, while a man's life expectancy is 76.

The report also showed women represent a growing percentage of
people dying from HIV/AIDS - from one in nine HIV/AIDS deaths in
1989 to one in three deaths in 2003.

There was a 24 percent decline in the Bay State homicide rate from
2002 to 2003.