Prescription drug deaths a growing concern

Prescription drugs like Oxycontin and Xanax are killing more than twice as many people in the Bay area as illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Prescription drug overdoses are on pace to kill more people in the Bay area than car crashes. And these overdoses are quickly becoming the leading cause of accidental death.

Prescription drug overdoses killed 339 people in the Bay area in 2005 and 433 in 2006. Last year's stats are not complete but officials said the Bay area is on pace for 550.

Cindy Harney's 20-year-old son Garrett and Julie Rinaldi's 17-year-old daughter Sarah are among those statistics.

An autopsy showed Sarah had Oxycontin and Xanax in her system. Garrett Harney's autopsy showed the same drugs in his system plus Hydrocodone.

On a national level, actor Heath Ledger's death in January has been attributed to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

It turns out prescription drugs like Oxycontin and Xanax are killing more than twice as many people in the Bay area as illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Bay News 9's partner newspaper The St. Petersburg Times, analyzed 645 accidental Bay area deaths.

Of those, it was determined people in their 40s were most likely to die from prescription drug overdoses. They work in manual labor, the service industry and the medical field. Most died from Opoid painkillers, with Methadone and Oxycodone topping the list.

A large number of people also died from anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax and Valium. And nearly 70 percent were killed by an overdose involving more than one drug.

Dr. Lynne Columbus said the combination of painkillers with an anti-anxiety drug is lethal.

"The combination of the two can cause a patient to stop breathing,' Columbus said. "The brain just doesn't register that they're supposed to be breathing, you're too sedated."

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