Ky. law cuts pill overdoses, but that's outweighed by jump in ODs from heroin, an alternative drug

Deaths from prescription-drug abuse in Kentucky declined last year for the first time in a decade, but the 2012 law that top state officials credit for the decline has prompted many drug users to switch to heroin, and last year's increase in heroin deaths (121) was much larger than the decline in prescription-drug fatalities (19).

"Autopsied overdose deaths attributed to the use of heroin increased 550 percent over the previous year, from 22 in 2011 to 143 cases in 2012," a release from Gov. Steve Beshear's office said. The decline in prescription-drug deaths was 1.9 percent, from 1,023 to 1,004, but the release said nothing else about the new problem and did not link it to the 2012 law that cracked down on abuse of prescription drugs.

The first quote in John Cheves' Lexington Herald-Leader story came from Van Ingram, executive director of the state Office of Drug Control Policy, which the new law required to begin publishing annual reports on drug overdose fatalities in the state: "There's no great victories here. I'm glad that we're at least seeing a leveling off and some small decline. I've been in this job for nine years and have watched a steady rise in numbers that whole time."

The problem remains primarily rural, as indicated by the Herald-Leader map. "Ingram said he and others have struggled to understand why drug addiction particularly plagues southeastern Kentucky," Cheves writes. "The region's poverty plays a role, he said. So does 'learned behavior,' as children watch their parents abuse drugs and then do the same themselves, he said."

The law required pain-management clinics to be owned by a licensed medical provider, required all drug prescribers to register with a state monitoring system, and reduced the number of prescriptions for heavily abused controlled substances. (Read more)