Legal drugs blamed for four Lamar County deaths

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In just four days, four people in rural Lamar County died of  legal drugs prescribed for them.

Many in the county of less than 16,000, 60 miles south of Atlanta,  feared “bad dope” had killed them, said Sheriff Larry Waller.

But Lamar County Sheriff Larry Waller said Wednesday all four – including two who died at the same house three hours apart – had unintentionally taken too much of their prescribed pain medications: fentanyl, hydrocodone or oxycodone.

“There is no evidence of a connection between the instances other than the location of the first two,” Waller said, then trying to calm the community then.

Cynthia Moore, 44, and Dee Dee Glover, 38, died Oct. 21;  Moore just before 7 a.m. and Glover around 10 a.m.

Within hours of the first two deaths, the rumors started that “toxic drugs” were being sold  “on  the street” in the county 60 miles south of Atlanta

The sheriff tried putting out a statement: “We have no evidence of that.”

Then the next day – on Thursday, Oct. 22 -- deputies were called to another house where a third person had died, 42-year-old Lewis Randall.

And on the following Sunday, Donna Giroux, 48 was found dead at her home.

On Wednesday Lamar officials received the toxicology report from the GBI.  They were all killed by legal drugs prescribed for them.

"These people did not intend to take their own lives and they all left behind loved ones who will miss them," Waller said.

Dr. Kris Sperry, the state Medical Examiner whose office conducted the autopsies, said Wednesday the four deaths were coincidences but also an “illustration” of the prevalence of overdosing of prescribed medications, usually pain killers.

According to statistics compiled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and provided to AJC.com, deaths from prescribed medications are far more common that those caused by illegal drugs.

The GBI recorded 638 drug overdoses in Georgia last year. That tally does not include seven counties that conduct their own autopsies – Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry and Rockdale. Of the 638 deaths, 543 were from legal medications and 95 were blamed on illicit drugs.

In 2007, there were 610 drug overdose deaths; 107 involved illegal drugs.

According to the GBI, in 2007 and 2008 there were 375 deaths from methadone, 345 from alprazolam, 224 from hydrocodone and 202 from oxycodone. Alprazolam is usually prescribed for anxiety and sometimes depression. Methadone is used for managing chronic pain and in place of more addictive paid medications. The other two also are for pain.

In comparison, there were 247 cocaine-related deaths in those same two years.

“The epidemic of prescription drug abuse is almost as severe as the epidemic of illegal drugs,” Waller said.

Sperry, with the GBI’s Crime Lab, said most who are prescribed these addictive medications get little more information beyond warning labels or scientific brochures pharmacists hand out with the medications.

“I think a lot of people who inadvertently take too much don’t understand those drugs can be quite toxic,” Sperry said. “It’s different to some extent that the drug-abusing population who seek out those drugs because they are trying to get high.”