Lott said the center expects to see an increase in deaths related to illicit or "designer" drugs, in part fallout from changing legislation that regulates pain clinics and prescribing of prescription painkillers. "It's cheaper, and it's stronger" than prescription painkillers, Hawes said. Still, anecdotally, some prescription-drug users are turning to heroin as other drugs become more expensive and difficult to get, Hawes said. That's been a fairly recent change, so it's possible heroin use was under-reported in the analysis. Heroin is metabolized more rapidly than other drugs, Hawes said, so the center has adapted testing to account for that. It wasn't recorded in any deaths in 2010-2013 but was found in 11 in 2014.
Heroin showed up in the top 10 for the first time last year, found in 25 deaths. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has reported packets of heroin laced with fentanyl as well as pure fentanyl packaged and sold as heroin. Lott said that includes both pharmaceutical fentanyl or and fentanyl produced in clandestine labs, which means the potency can vary. It was found in four deaths in 2010, two in 2011, nine in 2012, and five in 2013, but 18 in 2014 and 24 in 2015. The number of deaths attributed to fentanyl more than doubled over the past two years. Every time we think we're getting a handle on the problem, a new one pops up, in the form of new drugs or the resurgence of old ones." "It has become very clear in recent years that the prescription drug epidemic is bearing down on East Tennessee," said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett. "It can be a combination of drugs."Ī common combination in East Tennessee is oxycodone and a benzodiazepine, such as Xanax, she said. Amy Hawes, assistant medical examiner for Knox and Anderson counties. "Most people don't die from one particular drug alone," said Dr. 4 in 2010, has been steadily creeping downward but still made the top 10 every year in the report, and buprenorphine (suboxone) deaths also have risen. 6 in 2010 and in the top five every year afterward, and was roughly three times more prevalent in the 45-to-54-year-old group than in any other age group. Morphine, oxymorphone and alprazolam (a sedative often sold under the brand name Xanax) were near the top of the list every year. This data can't tell whether drugs were prescribed to the deceased, or diverted, or whether they were taken as prescribed - only that they contributed to the death of the person taking them.īut it does show the prescription painkiller oxycodone has led the list of top 10 drugs found in drug-related deaths in the two counties from 2010-2015. "They live next door and in our neighborhoods. "Based on the Knox and Anderson county data, drug-related deaths occur mainly with people you work and go to church with and the parents of the kids our kids play and go to school with," said report author John Lott, senior director for the Knox County Regional Forensic Center.
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The report also found that, although the number and types of drugs linked to deaths have increased over those five years, oxycodone was always the most frequently found drug in drug-related deaths.ĭrug-related deaths occurred most often among people 45-54 years old, followed by people 55-64 and 35-44.Īnd five ZIP codes - 37918, 37920, 37917, 3799 - consistently had more residents dying from drug-related causes. The Knox County Regional Forensic Center released a report Monday on drug-related deaths in Knox and Anderson county between 2010-2015, in an attempt to shed light on the growing drug-related death problem in East Tennessee and the need for a system to track and address it. Three-quarters of drug-related deaths in those two counties involved prescription drugs - not illicit "street" drugs - though that may change as prescription drugs become more difficult to obtain. Drug-related deaths in Knox and Anderson counties have doubled over the past five years with a drug-related death rate higher than either the state or the country.īetween 2010-2015, the two counties' combined drug-related deaths jumped from 101 to 200 - from 12 percent to 19 percent of the total autopsies and exams conducted in those counties.
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