Prescription drug overdose deaths appear to be subsiding in Oklahoma as new laws and outreach efforts take effect. But black-market methamphetamine and heroin deaths are surging.
Drug law enforcers and medical professionals said they were both encouraged and alarmed by the latest overdose death data, generated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and compiled by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
The encouragement comes from increasing evidence that tougher oversight and outreach are causing the toll of prescription drug overdoses to stabilize and decline slightly.
“Deaths are down because of greater use of the Prescription Monitoring Program and greater awareness by physicians, through conferences, through training, through just networking,” said Narcotics Bureau spokesman Mark Woodward.
The alarm stems from a troubling rise in methamphetamine and heroin deaths, some of which might be attributable to former prescription drug users switching to cheaper bootleg drugs.
“The Mexican cartels are just pouring ice into this country in record amounts,” Woodward said, referring to black-market methamphetamine. “It’s simply just to feed the demand, which still remains very, very high for meth.”
Heroin has been making a comeback across the country. The latest data suggests that Oklahoma drug users are beginning to make that transition, too.
“Talking to people in recovery, I’ll ask them, ‘What was your drug of choice?’“ Woodward said. “Five years ago, it was meth, meth, meth and prescription drugs. But for the last two or three years, (many) said it was heroin.”
Highlights of the latest statistics:
--The total number of deaths officially attributed to overdoses dipped to 823 in 2015 from 870 the previous year. From 2001 to 2010, the number of fatal overdoses increased 137 percent, from 344 to 814. Since 2010, the annual death toll has increased only 1 percent.
--Five frequently-prescribed opioid painkillers were a factor in 482 deaths last year, or 59 percent of all fatal overdoses. In 2010, those five drugs contributed to 588 deaths, or 72 percent of the total. Oxycodone was the most frequent offender, followed closely by hydrocodone. (Because some deaths involve “cocktails” of lethal drugs, the individual drug tallies add up to more than 823.)
--Prescription benzodiazepine tranquilizers continue to be a factor in many overdoses, showing little change over five years. Alprazolam (Xanax) and diazepam (Valium) contributed to 195 deaths last year, or 24 percent of total overdoses. “Benzos” are seldom lethal by themselves but can be deadly when combined with opioids or alcohol.
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on a range of public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go to www.oklahomawatch.org.
