Something bad happened in St. Mary’s County over the last two years. But this story is also about the old truism that everybody understands: “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
In 2008 in St. Mary’s County there were 17 deaths from drug overdoses. Ten were males, seven were females and six were juveniles. Many of those deaths were from prescription drug overdoses, mostly from Oxycodone. That drug is a semi-synthetic opioid synthesized from poppy-derived thebaibne. It’s been around since 1916 and is indicated for relief of moderate to severe pain. It is addictive, with the risk of severe withdrawal symptoms when the user becomes physically dependent.
That was the first wrong in our story. To fight prescription drug abuse there was a crackdown on doctors indiscriminately and in some cases criminally prescribing drugs, and to pharmacists dispensing them, and to street criminals obtaining it and selling them. It is still a problem in the community irrespective of the crackdown.
But the statistics tell the story. Overdose deaths fell to eight in 2009, seven in 2010 and 2011. This is when the second wrong in our story happened. With the supply of illegally obtained prescription drug shrinking, an option emerged that was easier to obtain and cheaper to buy – heroin.
The statistics are beginning to tell the new story. In 2012 there were four overdose deaths, but for the first time in recent years one of those deaths was from a heroin overdose. Then, this year so far there have been six overdose deaths and five have been from heroin – a 500 percent increase in St. Mary’s County.
There is no distinction between an overdose death from Oxycode or another prescription drug and an overdose death from heroin for the family that suffers the loss of a loved one. But according to law enforcement officials, heroin presents a particularly dangerous trend because it is easier to overdose on and it deteriorates a person’s health quicker.
The Bay Net recently interviewed the Commander of the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Vice/Narcotics Division Captain Daniel Alioto, and Gary Lynch, the chief operating officer of Walden, the county’s crises and family counseling center. The two agencies are bookends of the problem, with one arresting the substance abusers and dealers and the other trying to help them get off the habit. Both believe they are just one part of the solution and that it will indeed take a “village” to battle heroin.
According to Alioto, St. Mary’s County is now second in the state in the numbers of persons seeking assistance for heroin addiction. He said the heroin abusers fall into two categories: new users and those who had “gotten clean” and are using it again.
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