The Las Vegas metropolitan area had some of the highest numbers of deaths linked to drugs compared with 30 other cities studied nationwide, federal data released Tuesday shows.
The 2002 data showed 376 Las Vegas-area deaths related to drugs, up from 273 the year before. That increase -- 38 percent -- was third highest among the cities that report to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration every year.
Similarly, the Las Vegas area's per capita drug-related deaths -- 25 per 100,000 -- were third highest.
Law enforcement, counseling and academic experts all said the numbers were alarming and indicated that more prevention and treatment are needed in Southern Nevada.
"We're very concerned about these numbers," said Sgt. Blake Quackenbush of the Metro Police narcotics unit. "It's frustrating because you'd like to see them go down."
The 12-year veteran of the narcotics unit and other experts said the growing drug problem comes from the area's lifestyle and changing trends in drug abuse nationwide -- particularly the increased purity of heroin and the rise in prescription drug abuse.
"In my experience, in Vegas it's a fast lifestyle ... (that) draws gamblers with an addictive personality and a lot of people who have no family or friends for support, so they turn to drugs when they have problems," Quackenbush said.
He also said he sees growing abuse of the so-called "date rape" drug in the 120 or so overdoses his unit dealt with last year -- though nearly all of those cases were nonfatal.
Cathy Arentz, clinical director for Economic Opportunity Board's treatment division, said drug use "seems to go with the culture of the city.
"It's the 'What happens here, stays here' thing, where it's more accepted here to do things that may not be accepted in other parts of the country," Arentz said.
The EOB, a nonprofit organization, runs one of the Las Vegas Valley's three inpatient treatment centers for substance abuse, with 36 beds. The other two are run by WestCare and the Salvation Army.
Arentz said she sees addicts struggling with some -- though not all -- of the top 10 drugs mentioned in the data as being direct or indirect causes of death in the Las Vegas area.
These include prescription drugs such as OxyContin and methamphetamine, she said.
The No. 1 substance listed as a factor in the deaths analyzed was alcohol, abused in combination with other drugs.
Heroin and morphine were second, cocaine third, methamphetamine fourth and methadone fifth. Three prescription drugs were also included.
Larry Ashley, assistant professor in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas counseling department and a specialist on addiction, said that heroin has increased in purity in recent years, increasing its danger.
"It can overwhelm your body before any tolerance is built up," he said.
Ashley, who teaches future substance abuse counselors, also said prescription drugs on the list such as oxycodone and hydrocodone are "out of control.
"Ten years ago you probably wouldn't see (them on the list). That points to prescription drug abuse," he said.
Taken together, the prevalence of alcohol and prescription drugs in the deaths analyzed help explain another part of the data, Ashley said -- 318 of the 2002 deaths, or 85 percent, were white. This contradicts stereotypes many hold, he said.
"The alcohol and prescription drug numbers point to white folks," he said. "But you ask most people where the drug problem is, they'd say minorities in the inner city.
"Drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer, it turns out."
Ashley also said there needs to be more study of the prescription drug problem.
"One of my soapboxes is that whether it's legal or not doesn't correlate with how lethal it is," he said.
The federal agency's data comes from medical examiners or coroners in the metropolitan areas -- areas defined by the Census Bureau -- that choose to participate. The agency said that not all jurisdictions in each area reported to the data-gathering project -- nearly 90 percent of the Las Vegas area responded, for example -- and that some terms such as names for drugs vary from area to area.
In the end, numbers such as those shown in the data will only decline if more attention is paid to education, prevention and treatment, experts said.
"Enforcement is necessary but you're never going to solve the problem with enforcement alone," Quackenbush said.
"The key to solving this problem is prevention and rehabilitation," he said. "It's sad because the deaths are so senseless."
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