Drug deaths hit new high in Columbiana County

At least 11 drug deaths have occurred in Columbiana County this year.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — Drug and alcohol deaths in Columbiana County hit an all-time high in 2006.

The county had 22 deaths last year attributed to drugs and alcohol. There were 15 deaths in 2005.

Sheriff David Smith said abusers don’t think of the potentially fatal consequences of using drugs.

“They don’t care,” Smith said. “They aren’t concerned with whether it kills them or not.”

The only thing drug abusers care about, Smith said, “is ‘Where can I get more drugs?’”

The drug and alcohol deaths so far this year appear to be on track to tie 2006. But that could change, according to Fran Rudibaugh, the chief forensic investigator for Coroner Dr. William Graham. Dr. Graham could not be reached Friday.

Rudibaugh said the 2007 deaths “may drop off in the second half of the year.”

There have been at least 11 drug deaths so far. Rudibaugh and David Scharf, the coroner’s assistant forensic investigator, are still waiting for results in several cases.

Rudibaugh said there was no good news in any figures relating to the increase of drug deaths.

“It’s been a horrible year for all of us,” Rudibaugh said.

By comparison, there were four drug- and alcohol-based deaths in the county in 1996. The deaths have been rising in recent years.

Rudibaugh said the deaths by drugs this year included nine suicides.

In toxicology tests performed in 84 other cases, some 44 tested positive for drugs. That means drugs were a factor in the deaths.

Some 17, or about 77 percent, of the 2006 drug and alcohol deaths were men.

About 63 percent of the men and women who died were in their 40s and 50s.

And opiates were the drug found in about 58 percent of direct drug and alcohol deaths.

Warning

Law enforcement officials have warned about the influx of drugs and their impact on the county for several years.

The sheriff said the problem in the county now is no different than Mahoning or Summit counties.

Smith said he and Prosecutor Robert Herron agree that about 80 percent of all crimes are somehow tied to drug abuse.

Smith and Herron, who could not be reached, have pushed for more resources to fight the rise in crime.

The sheriff is asking the county for more money to hire more deputies.

Herron has asked the community to get involved in the war against drugs, but he commented recently that Salem residents seem to think that some unnamed, unknown police agency would come to town and take care of the problem.

wilkinson@vindy.com