A 600 percent increase in heroin deaths has Sedgwick County officials concerned

The number of deaths from heroin has increased by 600 percent, and Sedgwick County officials are concerned that if nothing is done, the health risks here could reach the epidemic levels currently seen in other parts of the United States.

The number of deaths in Sedgwick County increased from three to 21 between 2011 and 2015. That is still a relatively small number compared with the East and West coasts, according to Marc Bennett, the Sedgwick County District Attorney.

“It’s not time to sound the alarm and panic, but we’re starting to see anecdotal examples here of super dangerous stuff,” Bennett said.

There were nearly 13,000 deaths in the U.S. from heroin overdoses in 2015. That’s an increase of more than 20 percent from 2014, and nearly 400 percent since 2010.

It’s not atypical for these kinds of public health issues to migrate from the coasts to the Midwest after a few years, Bennett said.

“Luckily for us we’re always a few years behind,” Bennett said.

In 2016, two Derby residents died from heroin overdoses. “If we are having heroin deaths in Derby, which is a very safe community, I assure you it is happening elsewhere,” said Derby Police Chief Robert Lee.

One typical path to heroin addiction is through prescription painkillers, Lee said. “Far too often we have a stereotypical view of who a heroin user may be,” he said. “It can literally be the person next door, and we need to be proactive and get the word out.”

One reason heroin is so lethal is that the dosage rate varies, depending on where it was purchased and how it was made. One dose of heroin can be more than 15 times as powerful as another, according to Timothy Rohrig, director of the regional forensic science center.

“One day you have the right dose to get the desired high,” Rohrig said. “The same dose the next day, and you end up in my morgue.”

And because it is injected, users who have taken too large a dose have little way of regulating their intake.

“There is no pharmacy making this stuff,” Bennett said. “You’re getting wild variations in quantity … and toxicity.”

Methamphetamine, by contrast, is usually very pure, so the dosage tends to vary little from one dose to another, Rohrig said. And users smoke it, rather than inject it, so meth users have more control over their dosage.

Heroin is increasingly being mixed with even more potent drugs, such as fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than heroin itself and is “dangerous even for law enforcement to handle,” Bennett said.

Sometimes heroin is mixed with carfentanil, a drug used to sedate elephants, Rohrig said.

“That will kill you in a heartbeat,” he said. Many heroin producers don’t know how to mix in these kinds of additives, he said. “The problem is they didn’t take chemistry classes either. They’re just mixing some in and hoping that they get it right.”

The number of deaths from oxycodone overdoses in the county increased substantially in 2015 as well, according to data provided by Rohrig. The number of deaths hovered around 30 per year until 2015, when it increased to nearly 50.

“Oxycodone is getting harder and harder to get,” Rorhig said. “We’re seeing more people switching over to the heroin itself.”

The number of heroin deaths has increased four out of the past five years. The exception was 2014, when the number of deaths fell to seven.

The number of deaths from other kinds of opioid overdoses, not including heroin and oxycodone, has increased from about 100 in 2011 to 140 in 2015.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 4:47 PM with the headline "A 600 percent increase in heroin deaths has Sedgwick County officials concerned."