Prescription drug abuse puts many Utahns in a deadly spiral

MURRAY — Denver Snarr's family couldn't love him more than they did, but it wasn't enough to keep him alive. His addiction to Lortab absorbed — and finally ended — his life at 25.

The charismatic young man, whose smile still looks out on the world from a family portrait, drew his last breath at home in a downstairs bedroom. He was poisoned by methadone — the second most deadly substance on Utah's prescription drug overdose list.

The son of Murray Mayor Dan Snarr, Denver's downward spiral started after an athletic injury at 17 gave him a taste of painkillers. He became one of hundreds of statistics in the Beehive State's ongoing tally of prescription overdose deaths.

On Monday, state health officials released the results of their first-ever survey detailing the demographics of those who die of prescription drug overdose. It shows that of the 278 Utahns who died of a prescription drug overdose from October 2008 to October 2009:

83 percent suffered from chronic or ongoing pain

78 percent were between the ages of 25 and 54

49 percent had received treatment for prescription drug abuse.

Though he died nearly three years ago, in August 2007, Denver Snarr fit the profile. He took two of the four prescription drugs on the "most deadly" list: Lortab (hydrocodone) and methadone.

"He told us he was taking the methadone to help him get off the Lortab," says his father, Dan Snarr, who was the first to find Denver's body sprawled uncovered on a bed, his half-eaten dinner a testament to the power of an addiction that had replaced every other bodily desire. His once-athletic frame had wasted away in a feeding frenzy satisfied only by pills.

Because they couldn't save their son, the Snarr family decided to speak out in an attempt to help save others. With Denver as a catalyst behind one bill, at least a dozen proposals to criminalize possession or abuse of prescription drugs or controlled substances were adopted or debated during the 2010 legislative session by Utah lawmakers.

State officials hope as they continue to publicize the problem and encourage physicians to use more restraint in prescribing the drugs that they can capitalize on the 12.6 percent decrease in prescription overdose deaths that began in 2008 and stayed at the same level last year.