Ending on a proverbial high note is always a desirable outcome. In this week’s rush to pass bills in the final days of Pennsylvania’s current two year legislative session, just the opposite seemed possible.

But on Wednesday lawmakers acquitted themselves well as they sent a package of opioid-related regulations to Gov. Tom Wolf for approval.

The bills, which institute new prescription restrictions and improve education requirements for doctors, have been derided by some as “low-hanging fruit.” Even if they are, they are a vital start to what must be a sustained, statewide effort to curb the disastrous reign of prescription opioids and their illicit and even-more-deadly cousin: heroin.

It’s true: at this point, no matter how well-crafted Pennsylvania’s response to this crisis is, it is playing a game of catch-up. For years communities throughout the state, and especially in Western Pennsylvania, have suffered as opioids took thousands of lives, helped reinvigorate the heroin trade, and exposed the inadequacies and underfunding of addiction treatment and prevention programs.

By now you might even be sick of reading the statistics: last year 3,383 Pennsylvanians died of overdoses; 81 percent of them involved heroin, fentanyl, prescription opioids or some combination thereof.

The state’s paralysis has been mirrored by communities like Butler, where on Thursday county officials hosted an educational forum that is the first in a series of actions aimed at helping people learn more about the threat and confront the crisis in their own homes and neighborhoods.

It’s been more than two years since overdose deaths here began spiking: from 13 in 2013 to 33 in 2014, 47 last year and already 50 through September of 2016. We’re playing catch-up too.

And everyone has more to do.

The crackdown on prescription opioids is likely to drive even more users to illicit drugs, and state lawmakers have yet to address widespread disparities in the availability and use of lifesaving treatments like naloxone — an overdose antidote that is still surprisingly unpopular with many police departments across the state. To Butler County’s credit, it is one of the few places where every municipal police department is equipped with the antidote.

Additionally, while the 2016-17 state budget increases funding for treatment by $20 million, that’s likely not enough to meet the rising demand for services. Butler County, where there is a dangerous shortage of high level inpatient treatment services available to addicts, isn’t exempt from that problem.

It’s frightening to think that, as bad as this crisis has become, it could get worse before it begins to get better. All the more reason for communities and the General Assembly to both stand ready to build upon the momentum generated by lawmakers’ votes on Wednesday.