The number of fatalities in Deschutes County stemming from heroin use remained flat in 2012, according to data released this week by the Oregon state medical examiner.

One fewer person died in 2012 of methamphetamine use than the previous year, according to the state Medical Examiner.

Three people in Deschutes County died of causes stemming from heroin use in 2012, and a fourth died of a combination of illicit drugs. Three died of methamphetamine use in 2012, down from four the previous year.

“Having three people die from a heroin overdose in our community is not OK, and I think there are many community members who would agree it’s not,” said Jessica Jacks, prevention coordinator with the Deschutes County Children and Families Commission. “We study teens’ drug use and talk with school nurses to get a sense of what they see. We have consistently seen prescription drug use in teens increase over the last several years and we use those numbers as indicators for future addiction problems.”

Neither Crook nor Jefferson counties reported any drug-related deaths in 2012. In 2011, each county reported one methamphetamine-related death. One person also reportedly died in Crook County due to heroin use and another from a combination of illicit drugs.

Statewide, Medical Examiner Dr. Karen Gunson reported a 7 percent drop in drug-related deaths compared with 2011. Despite the drop, the number of 2010 deaths from heroin doubled in Jackson and Marion counties over the previous year. In 2011, Jackson County reported nine heroin-related deaths. In 2012, that number jumped to 19. Marion County increased from 10 to 19 in the same period.

“There is nothing to celebrate in these numbers because these are real people needlessly dying from the abuse of illicit drugs and prescription medications,” Gunson said.

Gunson also released total prescription drug-related deaths for the state — focusing on methadone, hydrocodone and oxycodone as the three main causes of death.

Total prescription drug-related deaths in 2012 dropped to 170 from 193 reported in 2011.

Methadone-related deaths accounted for nearly half of those fatalities, with 78 reported in Oregon in 2012. Of the three recorded categories, only oxycodone-related deaths rose in 2012, up to 66 from 56 reported deaths related to oxycodone abuse the previous year. In 2011, there were 100 methadone-related deaths in Oregon. Hydrocodone-related deaths dropped to 26 in 2012, compared with 37 in 2011.

Gunson suspects this shift from opioids to heroin is one reason she noticed the ages of Oregonians dying from heroin overdoses dropping to people in their 20s. Historically, heroin-related deaths were reported in an older demographic.

Locally, the trend seems similar.

“What I think people don’t realize is that we don’t see the same type of people as were the heroin addicts of the ’70s,” said Karen Tamminga of Deschutes County Behavioral Health. “These are younger users who don’t see heroin as taboo. Often they’ll try it first in combination with another drug, such as pot, so it doesn’t carry the same taboo.”

Tamminga said drug trends often go in cycles, and while the economy was booming in the late 1990s and early 2000s the prevalence of amphetamine-type drugs rose.

“With the economic failure, coupled with the regulations placed on ingredients to making methamphetamine, the drug of choice tends to become depressants, opiates,” Tamminga said. “Heroin use really started picking up in the area around 2005 and 2006 and it’s continued on an upswing since then.”

Gunson credited the reduction in prescription drug deaths to Oregon’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which took effect in September 2011 and allows doctors and pharmacists to access a patient’s history to check if another doctor had recently prescribed the same medication.

“We are also seeing a trend — and the police would agree — of people who were addicted to prescription opioids turning to heroin because they can’t get their prescriptions filled or can’t afford to pay the street price,” Gunson said. “They can get the heroin cheaper, but they don’t know how to take it or its potency.”