The state Office of the Medical Investigator has confirmed 20 people died of drug overdoses in Rio Arriba County in 2008.
This number could rise in the next few months after toxicology test results are released on six individuals who died of suspected drug overdoses.
A combination of drugs caused 13 of the deaths and is another sign of the shifting trend of overdoses being caused by prescription drugs instead of illegal drugs. Heroin, the nationally recognized scourge of the Española Valley, contributed to seven deaths but alone caused only one; while cocaine contributed to 11 and alone caused four deaths, according to autopsy reports provided by the Office.
The epidemiology department at the state Health Department analyzed the changing trends in overdose death between 2006 and 2007 in a study released late last year. Between those two years, prescription drug deaths increased 28 percent throughout the state, the study reports, while illegal drug-caused death increased by four percent.
Prescription opioids contributed to eight of the deaths confirmed so far in the County; the study notes a 40 percent increase in prescription opioids besides methadone between the years studied. An even larger rate increase was recorded state-wide for antidepressant-caused deaths; one death from a combination of the antidepressant Zoloft and other drugs has been recorded so far in the County.
“They’re using prescription drugs as a substitute for heroin and cocaine,” State Police Sgt. Chris Valdez, a former narcotics agent, said of the changing trends toward prescription drugs, which he’s particularly noticed in the past two years. “When people are addicted to heroin, they say their body aches, so they take prescription drugs, then still take more heroin.”
Rio Arriba County recorded 26 overdoses in 2007, 19 in 2006, 17 in 2005 and 2004, and 15 in 2003, showing a steady increase each year. If the six cases that are currently open pending toxicology test results are determined to be overdose deaths, Rio Arriba’s overdose rate for 2008 will equal the recorded high of 2007.
Between 2005 and 2007, Rio Arriba had the highest drug overdose rates in the state, according the Department, with 49.9 per 100,000 people, compared with the state average of 17.1 per 100,000.
State Health Department epidemiologist Nina Shah also noted the interrelation between prescription and illicit drug use in the recent study. Those who become addicted to prescription drugs may turn to illicit drugs as a cheaper high, the study notes.
“Changing prescribing patterns and increased access” is deemed the likely cause of the increase in prescription drug deaths by Shah, an assertion State Police criminal agents agree seems to be to blame.
“I’ve been told by the public that the problem is doctors giving out prescription drugs like candy and not following up,” Valdez said.
Additionally, State Police agent Joey Gallegos noted that because of privacy restrictions on medical information put into effect by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPPAA, there is no way to track if a patient is shopping around between doctors to obtain an excessive amount of medication.
Valdez estimated most people who die of a prescription drug overdose don’t obtain the drugs directly from the doctor, however, but from people who obtain large prescriptions through the above methods.