COUNTY NEAR TOP IN FATAL OVERDOSES

Gaston County ranked near the top in the number and rate of deaths from
unintentional drug overdoses, according to a new state study.

Gaston had the third largest number of accidental drug-related deaths from
1997 to 2001. Sixty people in Gaston died of unintentional overdoses during
those five years.

That's a rate of 6.36, based on number of such deaths per 100,000
population. Gaston ranked fifth in its rate, behind counties with much
smaller populations.

The Injury and Violence Prevention Unit of the North Carolina Department of
Health and Human Services conducted the study.

It showed unintentional overdoses statewide had more than doubled during
the period, which it attributed to increases in deaths from prescription
narcotic drugs.

Capt. Tony Robinson of the Gaston County Police Department said it's
difficult to control or even keep track of legal drugs used in an improper
fashion.

"I wonder how many people go from one doctor to the next without the
physician knowing about the other prescription," Robinson said.

"We're trying to scrutinize reports of stolen prescriptions more closely.
They have to have a police report of a stolen prescription to get another one."

For the five-year period, cocaine was the major overdose drug in accidental
deaths statewide. But for the past two years, methadone has been the most
deadly drug. Oxycodone also cracked the top five lethal list in those years.

The number of deaths from methadone overdose accounted for 46.7 percent of
the overall statewide increase, according to the study. Although the source
of methadone couldn't always be determined, only one death was linked to a
methadone clinic.

"The greatest difficulty we have is locating the source of drugs," said Kay
Sanford, the study's author. "At least 50 percent of those found are
already dead. Informants are not particularly informative as to where the
drugs came from."

Sanford said a medical examiner determines whether a death by poisoning is
accidental or intentional. If the examiner can't determine if a poisoning
death is accidental or intentional, it's classified as undetermined intent.

Fifty-five of the 2,419 poisoning deaths statewide during the study period
were due to unintentional overdose of legal or illegal drugs.

"The number of unintentional drug-related deaths in North Carolina has
reached epidemic proportions," the study concluded. "There is no reason to
believe that without intervention this trend (doubling within five years)
will spontaneously reverse."

Carmen Hooker Odom, secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services, said she would appoint a task force of professionals from medical
and legal fields to study the problem.

"We must act quickly to reverse this trend," Odom said. "The group of
experts. will begin working immediately to develop recommendations for new
policies and procedures for reducing these kinds of deaths, before the
problem reaches a crisis level."

Other study findings:

a.. 71 percent of the deaths were caused by a single drug, although 55
percent also had other drugs or alcohol in their system.

b.. The number of deaths caused by heroin and cocaine was relatively stable
during the five-year period.

c.. Alcohol was the most prevalent drug contributing to multiple-drug deaths.

d.. 80 percent of those dying from unintentional drug overdoses were white.

e.. The average age of the overdose victim was 39, with the youngest being
9 and the oldest 85.

f.. Two-thirds of the overdose victims were men, although the increase in
women was higher than men.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention assisted in the study, which
examined records from the N.C. Center for Health Statistics, the N.C. Vital
Records Section and the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.