Dramatic Increase in Drug Use Reported in the Northwest

A T L A N T A, July 21 — -- Heroin use has risen dramatically in the PacificNorthwest, with overdoses in the Portland, Ore., area accountingfor nearly as many deaths among young and middle-aged men as canceror heart disease, the government said today.

The drug, at about $20 a dose, is cheap on the West Coast, andblack tar heroin from Mexico or South America is readily availablethere, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Other studies have indicated heroin overdoses increasing in mostU.S. cities in the 1990s, but not as dramatically as in Seattle andPortland.

Multnomah County, Ore., which includes Portland, analyzedmedical examiner reports and found that heroin overdose deathsclimbed steadily from 46 in 1993 to 111 in 1999, a 141 percentincrease. Eighty-seven percent of the overdoses were among men.

Drug Deaths Way Up

In 1997, 67 men ages 25 to 54 died from heroin overdoses in thecounty, compared with 88 from cancer, 73 from heart disease and 44 from AIDS. But statistics from the Drug Abuse Warning Network indicate that use ofthe drug is increasing in most large cities.

During 1994 to 1998, DAWN received reports of 20,140drug-induced deaths in the United States where heroin or relatedopiates were detected. During that four-year span, heroin overdosedeaths increased 25.7 percent.

The CDC said its report probably underestimated heroinoverdoses. Many deaths were excluded because they may have beensuicides, and 52 were excluded because the victims were notresidents of Multnomah County.

The Seattle area saw a similar increase, as the number of heroinoverdose deaths climbed from 47 in 1990 to 110 in 1999, a 134percent rise. The population of King County increased 11.3 percentduring the same period.

Deaths from overdoses of heroin and other opiates peaked in 1998with 140 deaths.

Injection increases the risk of death because of the rapid riseof opiate levels in the blood, the CDC said. Black tar heroin isusually injected because it is too impure to snort. In most opiateoverdose deaths, alcohol and other drugs were also involved, theCDC reported.