Emily Hamer's List: Drug Deaths

• 5,000 deaths that were certified as drug-related between 1999 and 2008. Most were accidental overdoses or suicides and the majority involved male victims with an average age of about 43.

• The victims are younger and the drugs are more addicting. It’s hard to have a war on drugs, when some states are legalizing marijuana, which many say is a gateway drug.
• so now our jails and prisons are overcrowded with addicts.
• • Article basically says that efforts to get rid of drugs are failing.
• overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.”

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• From 2002 to 2009, more than 1,200 people died of drug overdoses in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties.

• Denise Konkol
• daughter Holly died two days after her 21st birthday.
• We couldn't stop it,
• Muskego Police Department Detective Shawn Diedrich and Community Resource Officer Ann Shaw
• rising drug use throughout Waukesha County.
• 323 defendents, netting 493 grams of cocaine, 11 grams of crack, 928 Oxycodone pills, 50,600 pounds of marijuana and 833 grams of heroin.
• he last statistic for heroin reflects a sharp increase from just 24 grams in 2011, and 20 in 2010.
• "If you don't think Muskego has a heroin problem, think again,"
• Diedrich
• Diedrich
• Shaw s
• 33 reported overdoses, 20 of them to heroin, with 11 fatalities
• 2012 drug-related crime has included 106 thefts, 71 retail thefts, 60 burglaries, 127 arrests for possession of drugs or paraphernalia and 75 underage drinking citations.
• • What parents should look for
• • Lying, stealing
   
  • Poor hygiene, or bad odor
• • Mood swings or changes in friends
   
  • Missing items from the home, especially spoons (used as paraphernalia)
• rehab facility in Oshkosh called NOVA

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• 4 drug overdose deaths in Muskego in 3 years, 2 of them in the last 3 months. Can we stop the next one?
• between the ages of 19 and 24
• Captain Chuck Wood of the Waukesha County Drug Enforcement Unit. 
• the cause of death as drug intoxication

• 2010        29 Overdose deaths from diverted or illegal drugs all year

   

  2011        20 Overdoses from heroin alone in 7 months, Jan 1 - July 26, 2011, not all ending in death
• Wood s
• • Over the counter drugs can be just as dangerous as heroine
• “It looks safer to be taking a pill made by Bristol-Myers than to be shooting heroin,” Wood said.  “Without a doctor, they’re equally dangerous.”
• Lieutenant David Constantineau of the Muskego Police Department (MPD)
• “We are seeing prescription meds in high school,” he said. “Heroin comes out of prescription pain killers.
• • Madison Kiefer died at 15 after taking a combination of different drugs. What ultimately killed her was synthetic opiate.
• “think a pill is safer, then they’re drinking and you throw in depressants, the heartbeat slows or ceases and we end up at funerals,”
• heroin, it’s less expensive
• can’t tell what dose you’re getting
• “Pure heroin snorting can be a relatively quick death,”
• • Similar to the drug van, it saves lives, but encourages drug use by giving this "false sense of security"
• false sense of security.
• There is a drug that can prevent an overdose death, commonly known as Narcan, or Naloxone, Wood said.
• Constantineau.
• Addicts believe their intelligence will keep them from overdosing, when in fact, an overdose has more to do with the purity of the drug than a user’s intelligence, he said. 
• Narcan can give users a false sense of security
• Addicts get high in groups, and if somebody goes down, they’ll give them a Narcan
• Lifepoint
• distributes safe hypodermic needles within Wisconsin communities, HIV infections caused by injection drug use have dropped 67% since 1994.

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• In one local county, it kills more people than car crashes.
•  Heroin is easy to get, highly addictive and many feel there's no end to this nightmare. 
• He died last year just weeks before his 26th birthday.
• Herzog was clean, but an argument with his girlfriend lead him back to heroin.  He used once and overdosed.  
•  Lieutenant Colin Hughes with the West Allis Police Special Investigations Unit.
• "It's easy to get heroin if you're looking for it,"
• In Dodge County they've reached the point where there are more deaths from heroin than traffic accidents.
• 19 related heroin overdoses in 2012.
• • effects. personal stories
• Ten years later he got clean, but snorting heroin left him with a lot of health problems.  Lybert's addiction also tore apart his family.
• Only one out of 10 heroin users live a sober life after treatment.

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