Spike in Heroin Overdose Deaths, ER Patients in Hennepin County, Minn.

June 06--Hennepin County has been hit by a dramatic increase in heroin overdose deaths and emergency room admissions for overdoses, officials announced Thursday at a joint news conference of the Sheriff's Office and North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.

The county is on pace to set grim records in heroin deaths, hospital and emergency room admissions due to overdoses and other markers related to the drug, Sheriff Rich Stanek said.

But "this isn't just a problem for one county;" it's true across the nation, he said.

In 2012, 37 people died of heroin overdoses in Hennepin County -- an 85 percent increase over deaths in 2011, he said. Already this year, the county is on track to have even more, he said, although he did not offer a number for deaths so far this year.

Most patients admitted for heroin overdoses in Minnesota are white and between 18 to 25 years old, though men outnumber women three to one, according to state drug data made available earlier this year.

It's part of an alarming trend across the Twin Cities as heroin and prescription pill use soars, also reflecting a national trend. Just this year, new data showed that heroin and prescription pill use reached a record high in the Twin Cities in the first half of 2012, accounting for 21 percent of all addiction treatment patients, second only to alcohol.

It's particularly alarming because Minnesota has some of the cheapest and near-pure heroin in the country. Opiates -- heroin and prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, codeine and Vicodin -- already have a higher potential for abuse, addiction and overdose than other drugs. And as prescription pill abuse has increased, so has heroin; those pills mimic heroin, prompting users who can't get them or develop a tolerance to turn to the street drug.

As concern grows, the state is ramping up drug prevention efforts across schools and communities. In the west metro, Lake Minnetonka communities have been hosting drug prevention meetings for parents and community members. And last December, the Southwest Hennepin Drug Task Force conducted its largest heroin seizure of 2012, confiscating 1,300 grams of heroin that likely would have been sold through the west metro.

Statewide, heroin arrests jumped nearly 82 percent from 2010 to 2011. In the metro, heroin use has quadrupled since 2000, rising from 3.3 percent of addiction treatment admissions to 12.5 percent last year, according to state drug data.

Kelly Smith --612-673-4141 Twitter: @kellystrib

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