Prescription overdoses deadlier than illegal drugs

Prescription drugs are causing more overdose deaths in Spokane County than illegal drugs like methamphetamine, the county’s medical examiner said Friday.

In 2005, 35 people in Spokane County died from overdoses of prescription medicine, according to the county medical examiner’s annual report, which was released Friday.

“What we are seeing primarily is deaths from prescription medications,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken. “There’s this misperception that it’s safe because it’s a prescription drug. It’s not candy, and it’s not safe.”

Although more people, 48, are listed in the annual report as dying from illicit drugs, Aiken said the statistics are skewed because the death of a person who has both prescription and illicit drugs in his or her system is listed as caused by illicit drugs. Many of those cases, she said, involve overdoses clearly caused by a prescription drug.

The drug causing most of the deaths, Aiken said, is methadone, a drug commonly used to help break heroin addictions and as a pain reliever. Used incorrectly, it can cause fatal breathing problems. Oxycodone (often sold as OxyContin) and hydrocodone (often sold as Vicodin) also have caused deaths, she said.

Aiken said methadone is particularly dangerous because it stays in the system longer than most medication. People abusing the drug sometimes take another dose without realizing the previous dose still is active. It is only safe if used under the care of a doctor, she said.

Last year, sheriff’s detectives arrested Kristopher D. Olson, 49, on charges of homicide with a controlled substance after his son, 22-year-old Kenneth Olson, died of a methadone overdose in a Spokane Valley motel. Investigators said the father had given the drug to his son.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan said investigators are noticing an increase of prescription drug abuse, especially OxyContin, and deputies are finding the medication in high schools and middle schools.

Aiken said methadone overdose includes a diverse group of people from the middle-aged to teenagers who obtained the drug at parties.

The medical examiner’s office performs autopsies for sudden deaths of healthy people and deaths considered unnatural or unlawful. Of the 4,126 deaths in Spokane County in 2005, autopsies were performed on 426 bodies.

Last year, the Washington State Toxicology Laboratory, which analyzes fluid taken from many autopsies, found methadone in the systems of 52 of the bodies that were autopsied in Spokane County. That number was 23 in 2002.