Rachel Snively • For The Post • rs181308@ohiou.edu
A more than 400 percent increase in deaths because of prescription drug overdoses from 1999 to 2008 has prompted Ohio's governor to issue an executive order calling for a uniform statewide response to prescription drug abuse.
The number of prescription drug-related deaths in Ohio totaled 1,568 in 2008, compared to 369 deaths in 1999. Prescription drug-related deaths surpassed car accident fatalities and suicide to become the leading cause of death in Ohio in 2007 and 2008, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Health.
There is no doubt that prescription drugs are a problem
said Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly. (But) our major problem is still heroin in the county. Where we find heroin we find other pills too.
The executive order signed by Gov. Ted Strickland April 2 created the Ohio Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, which will research prescription drug use and recommend a statewide plan for reducing prescription drug abuse. The order also will provide $250,000 in grants for law enforcement to fight drug trafficking.
Kelly said the governor still needs to provide more support to law enforcement.
The governor needs to redistribute money to the sheriffs so we can individually fight (drug trafficking) he said.
People in Athens County most frequently abuse OxyContin, a narcotic painkiller. Users overdose on OxyContin when they take several pills at a time, he said, adding that habitual users feel no immediate effects because the drug releases into the system slowly.
Kelly said he did not know how many prescription drugs the sheriff's office has collected during the past year.
Opioids are mostly responsible for the increase in abuse and were involved in 37 percent of 2008 drug-related deaths in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health's report.
People form prescription drug addictions because opioids such as codeine, oxycodone and heroin give the user a sense of euphoria, said Joe Gay, executive director of Health Recovery Services, a private, nonprofit organization that provides assistance to about 1,200 people affected with mental illness and alcohol, tobacco and drug addiction each year.
Since 2000, the percentage of opioid abusers receiving outpatient care at Health Recovery Services has increased from 3 percent of its total patients to 40 percent, Gay said. The percentage of adolescents being treated for opioid abuse has increased the same amount.
Gay called prescription drugs a gateway to heroin usage.
The state currently maintains a prescription-tracking database called Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System that records every opioid prescription written and filled within the state.
The sheriff's office works with the pharmaceutical board to track the types of drugs doctors are prescribing, and monitor potential addicts who go doctor shopping to get valid prescriptions, Kelly said.
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