DYING FOR DRUGS

Fatal Overdoses UP More Than 300% In W.VA. - In 3 Years

UNINTENTIONAL drug overdose deaths in West Virginia have risen by more than
300 percent in a three-year period, alarming addiction specialists and
state health officials.

That figure is probably even higher because in the case of a large number
of the overdose deaths, officials could not determine if they were
accidental or suicide. Addiction professionals believe most of those cases
are actually accidental overdoses.

"They're just trying to get high, and they overdose," said Dr. Rolly
Sullivan, professor of behavior medicine and psychiatry at West Virginia
University and director of the university's Addiction Services.

The huge jump from 1999 to 2001 comes as no surprise to him and others who
work in drug addiction.

"I would say that, based on the past couple of years and the amount of
drugs in this state, it doesn't surprise me," Sullivan said.

"It would appear to me that it's primarily in the category of narcotics,"
said Dr. Henry Taylor, head of the state Bureau of Public Health.

Taylor called the numbers "a significant increase in narcotics deaths."

Public Health officials have not broken down the results by particular
drugs, but categories show the largest increase in deaths is attributed to
narcotic drugs and a mixture of those with other drugs, frequently alcohol.

"A lot of times it would be a combination of alcohol and other drugs and
people didn't understand that they were getting into 'one plus one equals
three,'" said Joe Deegan, an addiction professional and public policy
chairman for the state chapter of the Association for Addiction Professionals.

Taylor plans to provide the figures to lawmakers Monday during interim
legislative meetings. "I'm saying [it has risen] 300 percent over three
years," he said.

State officials have battled with the pharmaceutical drug OxyContin. The
highly addictive, pain-killing drug has been especially dominant in
Southern West Virginia, where statistics show the highest increase in
overdose deaths. The drug has not been as popular in central and northern
sections of the state.

"I think it has something to do with the fact it was marketed so heavily to
the docs down there," Sullivan said.

He has been seeing fewer people addicted to that drug in the past year.
"Two years ago in August was the worst I've ever seen," he said, calling
the problem then a "candy land" for drug abusers.

'It's bad down here'

If there is a slowdown in its abuse, he believes it is because doctors are
more aware of the drug being abused. "By now, doctors have gotten
uncomfortable with writing prescriptions for it, and it's become a little
harder to get it."

In some areas of Southern West Virginia, police are still seeing more, not
less, drug abuse and they say it is still mainly OxyContin.

"It's bad down here," said State Police Sgt. Doug Berkel at the Jesse
detachment in Wyoming County. "We've probably had six or seven [overdose
deaths] in the past four or five months."

Berkel believes those needing pain-killing drugs go to several doctors to
get more than one prescription, then sell the remainder. With high
unemployment in many southern counties, it serves as a way to make a living
for some.

In Summers County, Trooper A.S. Reed recently investigated the overdose
death of a 16-year-old boy. Reed believes the teen was using OxyContin, but
toxicology test results have not been released. He also believes more
people are dying from drug overdoses this year than before.

"No doubt in my mind," Reed said. "Myself, I've actually probably worked
more, or seen more, this year than all of last year combined."

But other drugs have popped up almost as quickly. Sullivan is now seeing
many abusing the pain-relieving drug Fentanyl. It usually comes in patches
and is time-released.

Drug addicts use syringes to draw the drug out of the patches, or boil it
down and extract the drug. "It's way more potent than Oxy," Sullivan said.

Those overdosing on that drug "go into a big sleep, and that's it," he said.

Drug problems are not new to the southern part of the state, Deegan said.
"Chronically, there's been prescription drug problems [in the south]," he said.

About 20 years ago, doctors regularly prescribed opiates to patients in the
southern counties, he said. That led to more in-patient treatment centers,
generally in hospitals. Gradually, as the problem subsided in the 1980s,
those programs also went away.

Then came the OxyContin influx of the late 1990s. "It was like we didn't
remember we had a problem just 15 to 20 years ago," Deegan said.

Now, most addicts searching for help spend a few days in facilities drying
out, then are sent back onto the street only to become addicted again.
Deegan said real help for addicts takes long-term care.

"The longevity of the care seems to be the thing that works," he said.

Sullivan doesn't disagree. "In West Virginia, it's just ridiculous. It is
so ridiculous we just do not have residential facilities for addicts."

"I'd be surprised if we don't see this incident of overdoses continue going
up until we get more treatment available," said Deegan.

Taylor said it's also costly to society not to treat addicts. He points to
a national study which shows that for every $1 invested in substance abuse
treatment, it saves $4 to $7 in reduced crime and criminal justice costs.

West Virginia spends about $18.8 million annually on abuse treatment, most
of which comes from the federal government.

While the state recently opened an outpatient treatment center in Mercer
County, Sullivan said a halfway house for female addicts in Wheeling, one
of only two in the state, may close soon. Charleston has such a facility
for men, but not women.

"There's still a stigma for women to even seek treatment," said Deegan, who
is working on a project to bring a halfway house for women addicts to
Charleston.

"We definitely need more resources, and specifically we need to focus the
tremendous amount of resources being spent throughout the system," Taylor said.

Most abusers aren't teens

Abusers of narcotics are generally not teen-agers. Statistics show those
dying from drug abuse are men in their late 20s to late 40s, and women
generally in their 30s.

Death usually doesn't occur the first time they overdose, Sullivan said.
"The average person who dies from an opiate overdose had OD'd several times
before and has not died," he said.

Experience with drug abuse does not always help. "It's just because they're
so darned unpredictable ... you don't know what you're getting," Sullivan said.

Deegan said it is usually 10 to 15 years before narcotics abusers have
problems with addiction. They have "a loss of control in their 30s and
40s," leading to the loss of jobs and families.

For men, that usually takes longer than women, he said. "For women,
physically, it doesn't take as long a time for their bodies to not to be
able to handle it," he said.

Deegan believes the state has a good plan to fight drug addiction with
outpatient community programs. Those, though, are slow in being developed.

"Programs work as they are implemented," he said.