Report: Drug overdoses kill more children in ’08

Drug overdoses last year killed three times more children in Clark County than in 2007, with prescription drugs causing half of the fatalities, according to a report released Monday.

A county research team crafted the third-annual child death report for 2008 after reviewing all of the year's cases, 311, for the first time ever. In the previous two years, the team studied a portion of the deaths.

Last year, 10 deaths were listed as accidental overdoses. Almost all of the victims were between the ages of 15 and 17. Prescription drugs were linked to five deaths, methadone to three and street drugs to two.

Pharmaceutical drug use is on the rise among teenagers who think legal drugs are safer than illicit ones, the report said.

"Most got the drugs from family or friends," said Denise Tanata, executive director of the Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy, which oversees the research.

It's important for parents to keep their medication locked up so teens can't get to it, especially if their children have a drug problem, Tanata said. She said that 90 percent of children who overdosed had a history of drug use.

Next year, the team will look at how accessible prescription drugs are for children, she said.

Last year, 65 children died from accidents and 202 from natural causes, the report said. Natural causes include congenital diseases and premature births.

While fatal overdoses tripled, suicides showed a reverse trend: decreasing to four last year from 12 in 2007.

Tanata said she would like to think suicides are declining because of efforts to educate schools, parents and children about spotting telltale signs and asking for help. But there's a less rosy possibility, she said.

Some of the overdoses ruled as accidental might actually be suicides, she said.

The coroner's staff and police do a thorough investigation, asking the victim's friends and family a set of questions the institute developed to uncover hints of suicidal behavior, Tanata said.

If the person who dies by overdose leaves no suicide note and never talked of killing himself, the coroner has no choice but to rule the death an accident, she said.

"Were they just trying to get high, or did they try to kill themselves?" Tanata said. "Those determinations are hard to make."

The number of child homicides jumped to 21 from 15 in 2007, putting 2008 in line with 20 in 2006. Of those, fatal shootings claimed 10 lives.

Minorities made up a disproportionate share of shooting deaths: blacks at 40 percent, Hispanics at 20 percent, Native Americans at 20 percent and whites at 20 percent.

The shooting deaths were spread more evenly among minorities than in 2007, when 63 percent were black males.

Fatal shootings were concentrated in the north valley. An estimated 30 percent of the shooters and 10 percent of victims were possible gang members.

Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said he was not surprised that young minorities continue to fall victim to violence at a higher rate, given the economic disparities they suffer. They lack parental support, resources and constructive activities to take part in, he said.

"It's just kids out there who are lost, can't find their way," Weekly said.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS, dropped steeply among blacks to 33 percent compared with 67 percent in 2007. That's still disproportionately high in a demographic that makes up 9 percent of the county's population.

Ten children drowned last year, one less than the 11 in 2007. However, nine drowned in the first half of this year, putting 2009 on pace for an increase, Tanata said.

Car wrecks killed 26 children last year, six fewer than the previous year. A couple of more years of reporting is needed to see whether there's a trend or merely a fluctuation in fatal accidents, she said.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.