Cocaine believed more lethal than heroin

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 32

Cocaine believed more lethal than heroin

NZPA-Reuter Chicago Prolonged use of cocaine may be more deadly than heroin, and mortality figures in the United States are beginning to reflect that, medical researchers say. Studies done on laboratory rats at Concordia University in Montreal showed 90 per cent of animals given cocaine for one month died, compared with a 36 per cent death rate among those given heroin, said a report printed in the “American Medical Association Journal.” Historically, heroin has been viewed as more dangerous than cocaine, the report said, with fewer deaths directly traceable to cocaine. But the rat study indicates that cocaine has toxic effects, may depress brain function and has been underestimated as a killer, the study said. Dr William Pollin, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, commenting on the study in an editorial in the journal, said there was a 91 per cent rise in

cocaine-related deaths in the United States from 1980 to 1983. “Whether or not there has been a recent increase in the number of cocaine users in this country, it is clear that more intensive and destructive patterns of use — including free-basing, intravenous administration and the use of cocaine in combination with other drugs — have occurred among the existing population of users,” Dr Pollin said. He said cocaine’s threat was increasing because heavier production in South America offered the possibility of a greater supply and lower prices. “Cocaine is now becoming widely recognised as one of the most dangerous illicit drugs in common use,” he said. “Recent discoveries concerning the common central nervous system target it shares with heroin ... and its uniquely high level O; reinforcement lead to the conclusion that it is powerfully addictive and extremely dangerous,” he said.

Dr Pollin said the study helped “explain increased reports of cocaine-related morbidity and mortality, as the drug has become less expensive and its use more pervasive in this country. There has been a striking increase in medical emergencies and deaths associated with the use of cocaine ... substantially greater than that of other drugs.” In the Montreal study, a catheter was implanted in the jugular vein of each of 23 rats divided into two groups. Each group had access to either cocaine or heroin in a solution which could be self-administered, the researchers said. “The general health of the animals became markedly different. Those self-admin-istering heroin maintained good grooming behaviour, pre-testing body weight, and a good state of general health,” the study said. “Rats self-administering cocaine tended to cease grooming behaviour, to lose up to 47 per cent of their pre-testing body weight, and to show a pronounced deterioration in general health,”

it said. The researchers said that the cocaine used in the study was of a purer, higher quality than that sold on the street, and that could explain some of the mortality. But, they said, “As the intake of cocaine increases and the concentration of this compound becomes greater (through the availability of higher-purity drug, by intravenous injections or by free-basing) the number of fatalities associated with cocaine abuse is likely to increase.” Figures for cocaine and heroin use in the United States are sketchy. A drug-abuse institute official said in a household survey conducted in 1982 found that 21.5 million Americans admitted using cocaine at least once, out of a population of 182.4 million people over the age of 12. In comparison, another survey found only 1.8 million Americans over the age of 12 had used heroin at least once in their lifetime. The 1982 cocaine survey found that 4.1 million Americans had used cocaine in the month before the poll.