Dying Young with Heroin

(Lancaster, New York) A 17-year-old local high school student, Matthew S. Rybinski, reportedly died last month from an overdose of heroin.

Matthew Rybinski’s death puts a human face on heroin addiction and other drug use among young people in Lancaster — and in virtually every local community, suburban or urban.

“I don’t think it’s unique to Lancaster,” said Charles H. Tomaszewski, agent in charge of the Buffalo office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. “I just think it’s a problem in most suburbs in Western New York and across the country.”

The Erie County medical examiner’s office investigated 64 fatal drug overdoses from Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties in 2009, according to Health Department public information officer Kevin P. Montgomery. Eleven of those 64, including Matthew, were 25 or younger.

Rybinski's addiction apparently started with marijuana and then advanced to prescription painkillers such as Lortab and OxyContin. According to Dale M. Kasprzyk of the DEA, the transition from prescription drugs to heroin is quite common and easy since heroin is much less expensive.