Heroin, cocaine deaths on the rise in Seattle-King County

HEROIN AND cocaine-related deaths in the Seattle-King County area increased in 2002, following a dip in numbers between July and December 2001, a drug abuse study showed.

The Recent Drug Abuse Trends in the Seattle-King County Area report also showed increases in the use of club drugs, marijuana and prescription opiates. Methamphetamine use, however, seemed to level off after years of increases.

Heroin and cocaine, according to the report, dominate drug-related emergency department reports and mortality statistics. In the first six months of 2002, 48 heroin-related deaths and 49 cocaine-related deaths occurred in King County. In 2001, 61 heroin-related deaths and 49 cocaine-related deaths occurred.

King County, according to the report, registered 4,120 publicly funded alcohol and drug treatment admissions and 2,724 calls to the help line about illegal and prescription drugs from January to July 2002. An estimated 11,496 people visited emergency departments for problems related to drug use in 2001 in King and Snohomish Counties combined.

Other findings:

• Use of prescription opiates seen in emergency departments and in those dying from drug-related causes increased. Deaths in which oxycodone—marketed as Oxycontin and Percocet—was identified increased steadily from 1999 through the first half of 2002. Oxycodone was identified in 13 deaths, all of which also involved other drugs, from January to June 2002. US Drug Enforcement Administration data showed a 1,600 percent increase in Oxycontin distribution in hospitals and pharmacies throughout Washington and a 1,300 percent increase nationwide from January 1997 to March 2001.

• In the meantime, methamphetamine use and manufacturing seemed to have slowed down. Through November 2002, King County reported the seizure of 223 methamphetamine laboratories and dumpsites, compared to 271 in 2001. Publicly funded treatment admissions for methamphetamine leveled off in the first half of 2002 at 9 percent.

• Public Health-Seattle and King County’s STD clinic data pointed to a significant increase in the risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among men who have sex with men who use methamphetamine or MDMA/ Ecstasy, compared to men who have sex with men who do not use these drugs.

The drug abuse trends report is released twice a year by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington and is funded by the sate Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

From the University of Washington and King County Public Health News, January 14

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