Editor's note: This story was originally published July 30, 2008.

 

Even as the state is trying to reduce the number of drug-related deaths, Utah has set another record for people killed by pills, powders and needles.

    The state medical examiner reported this week that 519 people suffered drug-related deaths in 2007, the highest figure since Utah started tracking the deaths in the early 1990s. The previous record was set in 2006, when 485 people died.
    The figures include people killed by prescription and illicit drugs - or a combination of the two. But medications meant to soothe were the most deadly narcotics in 2007.
    Oxycodone, morphine and methadone were found in more victims than any other drugs, according to the medical examiner's data. It does not indicate whether the victims obtained the drugs with legitimate prescriptions.
    One of those who died in 2007 was Denver Snarr, the 25-year-old son of Murray Mayor Dan Snarr. Dan Snarr said his son developed an addiction to pain killers while trying to recover from various injuries. One afternoon in August, the mayor found Denver Snarr dead in his home.
    Since then, Dan Snarr has been speaking out to warn other families and the state about the dangers of prescription drugs.
    Health officials "need to step up and say there's a problem and we need to do something about it," Dan Snarr said.
    The Utah Department of Health has a two-year study under way of how prescription drugs are prescribed in the state, looking for causes and risk factors associated with prescription pain medication-related deaths.
    A related $1 million campaign seeks to educate the public and the medical community about prescription drugs, with a goal of reducing Utah fatalities in 2008 by 15 percent. It is scheduled to end in June.
    A Web site, www. UseOnlyAsDirected.org, provides warning signs, cautionary tales and resources about drug use and abuse.
    The department also is producing posters and window stickers to give to physicians and pharmacists, and will have a booth next week at a conference of pharmacists in Sandy, said Erin Johnson, program manager.
    "There's a perceived safety in using prescription pain medication," Johnson said. "People don't realize that you can be taking your own life in your hands."
    Research conducted as part of the campaign has focused on people who died after receiving a legitimate prescription. From 1999 to 2004, three-quarters of Utahns who died from drugs had a prescription for narcotics during the previous 12 months, Johnson said.
    "What it tells us is physicians are a good place for us to start educating," Johnson said.
    Johnson said medical students receive little education on prescription medications and doctors she has met have been receptive to more training.
    Dan Snarr believes doctors are prescribing too many drugs. His son, he said, developed an addiction at age 21 after he broke an ankle and a leg while skateboarding while holding onto a Jeep.
    Dan Snarr said he sent his son to a rehabilitation center, and the young man was doing well until another accident broke his wrist. Denver Snarr was prescribed painkillers again and relapsed, his father said.
    At the time of his death, Denver Snarr was using methadone, though he did not have a prescription for it, his father said. Methadone can be used to treat drug addiction, but it is also a narcotic that can remain in the blood stream after therapeutic effects have ended.
    The medical examiner ruled Denver Snarr's death was a result of methadone poisoning, Dan Snarr said.
    ncarlisle@sltrib.com