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Heroin: The Number One Suspect In Area Drug-Related Deaths

Graph by Julian Sadur
/
WYPR

Heroin use is on the rise in Maryland and it is killing more people than ever, according to a recent report from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

More than 450 residents lost their lives to the drug in 2013, compared to 238 residents in 2010. The last time the number of heroin-related deaths approached the recent high was in 2007, when the death toll reached 407.

Here is a table showing the rates of overdose deaths from alcohol, cocaine, methadone and heroin over the past three years:

                         Number of Drug Related Deaths in Maryland by Year

The heroin epidemic has been particularly bad in Central Maryland. In Baltimore City, 150 residents died last year because of heroin, the third highest total over the past seven years. The city’s heroin death toll was 151 in 2009 and 202 in 2007.

Number of Drug Related Deaths in Baltimore City by Year

The epidemic has affected more than just Maryland. US Attorney General Eric Holder described the problem in March as “an urgent public health crisis.” according to an Agence France Presse article. In the same piece, Marc Fishman, a physician who oversees the Mountain Manor refuge for young addicts in Baltimore, attributed the recent epidemic to an increase in access to heroin and a purer form of the drug. “The purity of heroin on the streets might be 60, 70, 80 percent – compared to three decades ago, when five percent was a big number,” he said.

Joshua Sharfstein, Maryland Health Secretary, said in an interview with Maryland Morning that the increase in deaths could also be attributed to heroin now being laced with a drug called fentanyl. He told host SheilahKast that “it used to be 1 or 2 (deaths) a month from fentanyl and now we can get 20, almost 30 a month.”

To help combat the heroin crisis, Maryland state troopers are beginning to carry naloxone, an easily administered nasal spray that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose.

Sharfstein also said in his interview that because of a law passed last year, Maryland has started a state-wide outreach program that offers naloxone training to parents, friends and relatives of those who are using heroin. “Eventually it will be every county in Maryland—we’ve already trained more than 1,400 people to be able to give naloxone,” Sharfstein said.

The law was introduced by Sen. Katherine Klausmeier and Del. Eric Bromwell, both of Baltimore County, in a direct response the spike in heroin deaths the area.