heroin - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T22:02:39Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/heroinAlong the Coast: Chiefs express concern for first responders’ mental healthhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-chiefs-express-concern-for-first-responders-mental-h2016-09-29T16:00:00.000Z2016-09-29T16:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br /> Consideration for the mental health of first responders in the heroin epidemic is being voiced by their chiefs in the South County.<br /> At a U.S. attorney’s town hall meeting called to build awareness of the exponential increase in heroin and opioid overdoses, Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said he is concerned about the impact on his staff.<br /> “Each one of the cases is an individual,” Alexander said. He said Boca Raton police responded to 80 overdoses this year and witnessed 10 fatalities, far fewer than in other South Florida cities.<br /> Alexander participated on the law enforcement panel along with Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman. Delray Beach police saw 465 overdoses and 45 fatalities this year as of Aug. 31, according to Police Department data. Most of the overdoses and fatalities involved heroin.<br /> Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg moderated the panel. He is leading a Sober Homes Task Force designed to weed out rogue opertors by strengthening laws and making recommendations to the 2017 Florida Legislature.<br /> In April, Danielle O’Connor, who was then Delray Beach fire chief, told the City Commission about the rise in overdose calls and their effects.<br /> “We are running on 10 to 12 overdoses a day. Sometimes the same person will overdose three days in a row,” she said. “We had a death this morning. It takes a toll on my personnel.”<br /> But the depth of the emotional toll is not clear because counseling sessions, a benefit offered by cities, are confidential.<br /> To address the mental health issues, Jeff Dill, a 26-year firefighter veteran who is a mental health counselor, started the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance in Arizona. <br /> Each fire-rescue person has an individual emotional response to an overdose, Dill said by phone. “It depends on what is going in your life at that moment. If it is one (overdose) after another, the fire-rescue person could be blasé. Or it could be traumatic for someone who lost a friend or a family member to a heroin overdose.”<br /> His 5-year-old organization offers workshops about stress on the job that leads to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Workshops also cover suicide prevention.<br /> “There’s cultural brainwashing when you are trained to be a medic,” Dill said. The training often neglects the behavioral side, he said.<br /> Dill also tracks and verifies suicides by firefighters. As of Sept. 15, he had verified 91 suicides nationally, compared with 131 for 2015. He estimates he finds out about 40 percent of the suicides.<br /> Police officers also can have emotional responses to overdose calls, said Debra Lynn Weiss, a licensed mental health counselor at the University of Florida.<br /> “Does the officer have a ritual after arriving home — take a shower or go for a run?” Weiss said. “Do they have supportive family and friends?” <br /> The frequency of overdose calls definitely takes an emotional toll and it can affect relationships, she said. <br /> The problems could show in trouble falling or staying asleep, having nightmares, avoiding the overdose calls and increased edginess, said Weiss, who served two years as victim advocate for the UF police force.<br /> “If alcohol or pot was a coping mechanism, its use could increase,” Weiss said.</p></div>Along the Coast: State responds to rise in overdose deaths with new legislationhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-state-responds-to-rise-in-overdose-deaths-with-ne2016-03-30T15:27:28.000Z2016-03-30T15:27:28.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong><br /><br /> Facing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, Florida lawmakers passed a number of bills in the recently completed legislative session that take steps to rein in the problem.<br /> “I think the Legislature has really developed an understanding of the impact of substance abuse disorders and mental health … and an understanding of the epidemic we are facing with heroin and opioids,” said Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. “These bills together show a deliberate effort by the Legislature to start addressing how we can be more effective to deliver care, respond to the opioid/heroin epidemic and coordinate services.”<br /> The legislative action comes as drug overdose deaths have surged in Palm Beach County, the state and the nation.<br /> The number of deaths jumped to 368 in the county last year, a 62.8 percent increase since 2013, according to data released by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office in late February. <br /> Palm Beach County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Bell has said he thinks the mixing of heroin with fentanyl is causing the increase in drug overdose deaths.<br /> Nationally, drug overdose deaths have increased 137 percent since 2000, claiming nearly 500,000 lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January. The biggest driver is the increased use of heroin and opioid pain relievers.<br /><br /><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Drugs outlawed by category</span><br /> One of the most significant new laws in Florida is the Designer Drugs Enforcement Act, proposed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.<br /> The law bans categories of drugs, such as those related to synthetic marijuana, rather than individual chemical compounds. It is aimed at solving the perpetual problem of illicit drug makers tweaking the composition of a drug so that it is not on the list of illegal substances.<br /> “It advances the ability to classify dangerous substances as being illegal even before they appear,” said James Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance abuse and drug outbreaks. <br /> In the past, it could take years to recognize the threat of a new compound and await legislative action to outlaw it.<br /> “We have had over 300 new drugs appearing in the illicit market in the last 10 years,” Hall said.<br /><br /><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Delivery of services reformed</span><br /> Lawmakers also approved wide-ranging reforms in a single bill aimed at improving the delivery of mental health and substance abuse treatment services. <br /> One key provision is a “no wrong door” policy so people who need treatment can get it regardless of whether they have committed a crime or have a personal crisis. It creates central receiving facilities intended to channel people to emergency care and intervention services. <br /> It also “aligns” the legal processes for assessment, evaluation and receipt of services under the Baker Act and the Marchman Act. The Baker act allows for involuntary examination or commitment of those with mental illnesses who may be a threat to themselves or others. The Marchman Act allows for involuntary commitment of those undergoing a substance abuse crisis.<br /><br /><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Some other new laws</span><br /> • A pilot program for Miami-Dade County that will allow drug addicts to exchange their dirty needles for free, clean ones. The aim is to reduce new HIV and hepatitis C infections caused by sharing needles and to give drug users information about treatment programs and other resources. <br /> Hall said the hope is to expand the program statewide. “That has been identified as a critical need with the rise in opioid deaths across the state,” he said.<br /> The bill was stalled for three years in the legislature because some say it would encourage drug use, although studies have shown that is not the case, he said.<br /> • A requirement that pharmacies sell lock boxes for prescription drugs to prevent drugs from getting into the wrong hands and to display signs saying the boxes are available for purchase.<br /> • A tool to combat prescription opioid abuse by making it easier for physicians to prescribe abuse-deterrent prescription opioids. These pills are more difficult to crush by addicts who want to smoke, snort or inject the drugs. Crushing drugs bypasses time-release properties, making overdose more likely.<br /> While Hall and Fontaine are glad to see the new legislation, they said much work remains to be done.<br /> “Florida has not kept up with the demand for treatment,” Hall said. “Until we address addiction through treatment and prevention programs and intervention and counseling, the cycle will continue.”<br /> Fontaine agrees.<br /> “We remain behind the rest of the country in funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment in proportion to the population,” he said. “Some of the other states have taken a more aggressive approach to the heroin epidemic.”<br /> Substance abuse, especially the rising use of heroin, has become an urgent topic at the national level and addressed by both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.<br /> In March, the U.S. Senate passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill 94-1. The measure authorizes money for treatment programs for addicts, including those in jail. It also strengthens prescription drug monitoring programs and expands the availability of the drug naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses.<br /> But a fight continues over extra funding for the programs, and the fate of the legislation in the U.S. House is uncertain.<br /> Also in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for prescription painkillers, recommending that doctors try pain relievers such as ibuprofen before prescribing highly addictive pills.<br /> The guidelines are intended to change the practices of doctors dating back 20 years when they began prescribing opioids for routine pain. Since then, opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin have become the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.</p></div>Delray Beach: Revived drug users to get help toward recovery resourceshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-revived-drug-users-to-get-help-toward-recovery-resou2016-03-30T15:22:11.000Z2016-03-30T15:22:11.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /><br /> Drug users who overdose and are rescued with the use of the medication naloxone may soon be getting long-term recovery help from an unexpected source — the Delray Beach Police Department. <br /> Police Chief Jeff Goldman, working in conjunction with the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, hopes to begin a pilot program this month in which the department connects overdose survivors with trained social-service advocates who can help get those who are willing back into recovery. <br /> “This is a recovery community but we don’t want it to be a relapse community,” Goldman said. “Our goal is to get these people help.”<br /> Initially, the pilot program will use social workers and addiction professionals provided on a volunteer basis by members of the drug task force, which includes several recovery-related professional and nonprofit organizations. <br /> Goldman hopes to eventually create a full-time paid special population advocate position within the department, with a scope that would include working on reducing relapses among drug users hospitalized as a result of overdoses. <br /> “My goal is to hire someone to work for the Police Department,” he said, adding that the individual would also be available to assist other groups, including the homeless and those suffering from mental illness. <br /> To help cover the costs, the Police Department is teaming up with the drug task force in search of available grants that could be used to defray some expenses. <br /> “Our job is to ensure public safety,” Goldman said. “It goes beyond putting bad people in jail. If we’re able to get these people into recovery and reduce the number of relapses, then we’re assuring a better quality of life for all in our community.” <br /> Goldman said his department is using a three-pronged approach locally to address the national heroin epidemic, which he says is responsible for about 30 overdoses a month in Delray Beach. That approach includes education, enforcement and lifesaving techniques, such as the use of naloxone. <br /> Law enforcement tools, including arrests of chronic offenders, will be used in cases where individuals don’t seek help getting into recovery, the chief said. <br /> “The No. 1 reason we’re doing this is because it’s a concern to our community,” he said. <br /> While details of the process are still being worked out, Goldman says the volunteers and eventually the advocate would probably be introduced to individuals recovering from an overdose by an officer or investigator gathering follow-up information. Currently, the department contacts those treated with naloxone by either police or paramedics to gather information that can be used in a criminal investigation. <br /> Last month, the Delray Beach Police Department became only the second law enforcement agency in the state to train officers on how to use naloxone to revive those overdosing on heroin or other opioids. <br /> Officers administered naloxone seven times in the first 15 days of March, while paramedics administered the drug 44 times through March 24.<br /> Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, sees the pilot program as an important next step in helping those who are revived after an overdose. <br /> “We have a responsibility to look beyond just handling a crisis,” she said. “You have to look deeper into where the problems are coming from. This is a longer term intervention that can help to break the cycle of addiction.”</p></div>Delray police now carry nasal spray antidote for heroin overdosehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-police-now-carry-nasal-spray-antidote-for-heroin-overdose2016-03-03T01:20:00.000Z2016-03-03T01:20:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960634656,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960634656,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960634656?profile=original" /></a></strong><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /><br /> As heroin use increases in South Florida, the number of overdoses and related deaths in Delray Beach also has exploded at a staggering rate. <br /> In 2015, Delray Beach police recorded 144 apparent heroin overdoses and 10 apparent heroin deaths. In just the first two months of this year, the number of opiate-related overdoses has already reached at least 77 and related deaths have climbed to 10, matching last year. <br /> Delray Beach police say the city, with its large recovery population, has recently become ground zero in Palm Beach County for heroin usage. A number of factors, including dealers from elsewhere hoping to lure users with free doses, are responsible. <br /> Now, the Police Department has a new tool to use in efforts to prevent overdose deaths, thanks to a grant that will make it possible for police officers to carry doses of naloxone — a reversal agent for opioids — that can be administered through a nasal spray. <br /> “This is another tool officers can use to save a life,” Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman said. “It’s another enhancement for our officers and for our community.” <br /> Sold under the brand name Narcan, naloxone can almost immediately reverse the effects of a heroin overdose, reviving an unconscious heroin user in just minutes — sometimes in just seconds. <br />“This naloxone is magic,” says Delray Beach Police spokeswoman Dani Moschella.<br /> Naloxone is not new in South Florida or Palm Beach County. It is being used nationwide, is available with a prescription in Florida and is becoming available over the counter in more and more states. <br /> Delray Beach Fire Rescue has been using it in the injectable form for decades. <br /> So far this year, in fact, paramedics have administered naloxone 77 times. <br /> Thanks to a grant from Evzio, maker of a single-use naloxone auto-injector, Delray Fire Rescue will be provided with 200 auto-injector kits, each with two doses of naloxone. The Fire Department will then pass on the nasal-spray naloxone kits it currently has in stock to the Police Department.<br />Paramedics will still respond to every overdose call and will be using the faster-acting and stronger injectable naloxone if they arrive before police. <br /> “Oftentimes a police officer will get to a scene before the fire rescue,” Goldman said. There are also instances where it may not be safe for paramedics to enter a scene before it is cleared by police.<br />As a result of the grant — an effort led by the Delray Beach Drug Task Force in coordination with Delray Beach Fire Rescue and the Delray Beach Police Department — the Delray Beach Police Department will become only the second department in the state to have sergeants on every shift equipped with and trained to use naloxone nasal spray. Sarasota County officers had them first. Goldman said that having naloxone available for use by police officers is just one tool to help reduce heroin-related deaths. Others include public education and enforcement of existing laws. <br /> Moschella and retired Delray Beach police Officer Jeff Messer — a member of the Drug Task Force — are making presentations to those in the city’s recovery community aimed at letting people know that under Florida’s Good Samaritan Law, they can stay and get help for someone overdosing without having to worry about facing drug possession charges. <br /> Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, sees the increased use of naloxone by police and paramedics as an important step but believes follow-up is also critical. <br /> “We know we have an antidote that can save lives, but then what?” she asked. “How do we get those receiving naloxone help so this won’t happen again?”</p></div>Heroin linked to rising drug death tollhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/heroin-linked-to-rising-drug-death-toll2016-03-03T01:00:00.000Z2016-03-03T01:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Related Story: Delray police now carry <a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/profiles/blogs/delray-police-now-carry-nasal-spray-antidote-for-heroin-overdose">nasal spray antidote</a> for heroin overdose</strong></span></p>
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<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong><br /> <br /> The number of drug overdose deaths has surged in Palm Beach County, jumping 62.8 percent over the last three years.<br /> The number of people who died from overdoses rose from 226 in 2013 to 368 last year, according to data released in late February by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960639090,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960639090,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="195" alt="7960639090?profile=original" /></a> The overdose death increase in Palm Beach County mirrors a national escalation that resulted in 47,055 deaths in 2014.<br /> “It is a crisis,” said James Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance abuse and drug outbreaks. “More people are dying from drug overdoses than traffic accidents in the United States.” <br /> The county medical examiner’s data list 21 overdose deaths in Boca Raton in 2015, 27 in Boynton Beach, 25 in Delray Beach and 41 in West Palm Beach. These 2015 death tolls could increase when pending toxicology reports are completed.<br /> The rising death toll is linked to the growing use of heroin.<br /> The top four drugs found in the bodies of Palm Beach County overdose victims last year were morphine, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Heroin metabolizes in the body into morphine. Dealers often mix heroin with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller that increases potency and reduces the dealers’ costs.<br /> “This is one of the worst epidemics I have seen, comparable to cocaine in the 1980s,” Palm Beach County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Bell told WPTV-Channel 5 in February. “I think the combination of mixing fentanyl with heroin is what is causing the epidemic.”<br /> The trend has the full attention of law enforcement. “Heroin and heroin laced with fentanyl is our No. 1 drug threat from a public safety point of view,” Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera said in an email.<br /> In late February, West Palm Beach police said that heroin had killed 11 people in just more than two months, while the use of flakka, dubbed “$5 insanity,” has declined. <br /> “There’s been a replacement of flakka with heroin,” said Capt. Brian Kapper in a Sun-Sentinel report. He called the increase in heroin seizures, overdoses and deaths “shocking.”<br /> The decrease in the use of Chinese-manufactured flakka, which causes delirium, delusions, violent fits and aggression, follows the Chinese government’s October decision to ban flakka and 115 other synthetic drugs after pressure from the U.S. and other governments.<br /> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention minced no words in a January report: “The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths.” <br /> Since 2000, drug overdose deaths have increased 137 percent, including a 200 percent increase in the deaths involving opioid pain relievers and heroin. Heroin overdose deaths increased 26 percent from 2013 to 2014 and more than tripled since 2010. From 2000 to 2014, nearly 500,000 lives were claimed.<br /> Midwestern and Northeastern states have been particularly hard hit, along with Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico and North Dakota.<br /> While the impact on Florida is serious, it is less severe than in some other states. Florida drug overdose deaths increased 4.8 percent in 2014, far below the two states with the highest increases — 125 percent in North Dakota and 73.5 percent in New Hampshire, according to the CDC.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960639480,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960639480,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="417" alt="7960639480?profile=original" /></a><br /> <strong>Addicts find alternatives</strong><br /> Yet Palm Beach County’s death rate is higher than the state average and Miami-Dade County’s. The rate was 20 per 100,000 population in 2014, while the statewide rate was 13.2 and Miami-Dade’s was 8.<br /> Nationally and locally, overdose deaths affect all age groups. In 2015, the newly released county medical examiner’s data show 10.9 percent of those who died were 15-24, 30.1 percent were 25-34, 24.9 percent were 35-44, 16.1 percent were 45-54, 13.7 percent were 55-64 and 4.4 percent were 65 or over. <br /> Males die more frequently from drug overdoses than women. In Palm Beach County in 2015, 69.9 percent of the victims were men and 30.1 percent were women.<br /> The vast majority of last year’s Palm Beach County victims — 92.4 percent — were white, with blacks trailing at 4.9 percent and Hispanics at 2.2 percent.<br /> Heroin’s roaring comeback as a killer locally is a result of the crackdown on pill mills that handed out prescriptions for highly addictive painkillers like oxycodone. Florida was hard hit by this scourge, with people from other states flocking here to stand in line for prescriptions.<br /> As pill mills were driven out of business beginning in 2011, the price of prescription drugs on the illicit market increased dramatically. “Heroin became the cheap alternative to prescription opioids,” Hall said.<br /> That history also explains why so many white men die of overdoses now. <br /> “White males were predominantly using opioids,” said Jeff Kadel, executive director of the Palm Beach County Substance Awareness Coalition. Addicted but cut off from their usual supply, they turned to another drug.<br /> The heroin business has changed as well. Since the 1990s, most of the heroin east of the Mississippi came from Colombia. “What we have seen in recent years is a dramatic increase in heroin production in Mexico, as well as refining of production methods,” Hall said.<br /> To increase the potency, heroin is mixed with fentanyl that is produced in clandestine labs in Mexico or China. Fentanyl, up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, is even passed off as heroin because its euphoric effects are very similar, according to the substance awareness coalition.<br /> “Newer, more potent heroin cut with fentanyl is a far more dangerous and deadly addiction,” Hall said.</p>
<p><br /> <strong>More treatment needed</strong><br /> About 100,000 people are in treatment at the many rehab centers or sober houses in Palm Beach County and recidivism rates are high, Kadel said. That shows up in the overdose death statistics, he said.<br /> If people in treatment stop using drugs for a time, the tolerance they have built up decreases, Hall said. “If they go back to using the same amount, that can lead to an overdose death.”<br /> While the Florida Legislature has taken steps to eliminate pill mills and doctor shopping, it has reduced funding for treatment, Hall said.<br /> “Florida’s failure was it ignored the demand side and expanding treatment opportunities,” he said. “We are not getting rid of this until we expand treatment programs” and allow insurance to pay for it.<br /> Kadel, who heads a federally funded prevention organization, would like to see greater focus on prevention. “As a prevention organization, we are concerned (Congress) tends to throw money at the problem rather than trying to prevent the problem. I am hopeful some dollars will be sent to the prevention field.” <br /> <br /> <em>Researcher Michelle Quigley contributed to this story.</em></p></div>