Heroin use

Ten people have died in Cullman County from suspected heroin overdoses in 2016, an unsettling trend that is killing parents of young children and devastating families.

It is more than three times the number of people who died from heroin in 2015 which saw three, according to Cullman County Coroner Jeremy Kilpatrick.

And 2016 isn’t even over yet.

The number likely only scratches the surface of the county’s heroin problem because it doesn’t include those who overdosed in neighboring counties or cases where a physician signs off on the death certificate.

Kilpatrick began tracking drug overdose cases more closely when he took office last year. He even went back and reviewed deaths that occurred in 2013 and 2014 and discovered two heroin-related overdoses occurred each year for a total of four.

Since then, the number of heroin overdoses has only grown.

It’s a reflection of what many have called a national epidemic that has been exacerbated by Fentanyl which has emerged as the latest drug menace due to a recent influx of counterfeit pills hitting the U.S. drug market.

The synthetic opioid is more potent than morphine and is used as an analgesic and anesthetic. Traditionally, it’s mixed into heroin or sold as heroin in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast.

But now, hundreds of thousands of pills are being sold, closely resembling oxycodone, Xanax and Norco which greatly increases the chance of overdose among those abusing opioids or benzodiazepines, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC issued a national health alert on the drug in July. From 2014 to 2015, the number of drugs that tested positive for fentanyl increased substantially, from 463 to 1,870. And that trend has continued in 2016 .

Hanceville Police Chief Bob Long said fentanyl-laced heroin has grown in popularity among recreational users in North Alabama and nationwide.

“We have lost three individuals [to heroin overdose] here in the last few months,” Long told The Times in July. “It’s a problem that is getting worse everywhere, and we encourage the community to come forward with any information they may have on any illegal drug use in our area.”

This summer, a Hanceville man was arrested for allegedly buying heroin laced with fentanyl in Birmingham and selling it in Cullman County. Hanceville, Gardendale, Sumiton and Jefferson County authorities coordinated the lengthy investigation.

Past misuse of prescription opioids is the strongest risk factor for heroin initiation and use— especially among people who became dependent upon or abused prescription opioids in the past year, the CDC has found.

More than 9 in 10 people who used heroin also used at least one other drug, and 45 percent of people who used heroin were also addicted to prescription opioid painkillers.

 

Tiffeny Owens can be reached at 256-734-2131, ext. 135.