In Butler County's courts, the sharp decrease in overdose deaths are a good sign, but that hasn't impacted caseloads much.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the goal is always to reduce the use of these substances in the community, and those dying as a consequence.

“If we can reduce it by one or two I would call that a success,” he said.

But while the overdose death rate has seen a “significant drop” and has been nearly “cut in half”, Goldinger said his office handles about 2,400 to 2,800 cases annually, and believes that 2018 is on track to see that many by the end of the year.

“I can't say we are less busy in the office because of fewer overdoses,” he said. “We haven't really seen a decrease in the caseload.”

Chief Public Defender Kevin Flaherty echoed those comments, saying his office is also not seeing much of a decrease in the cases they handle.

“We still have cases obviously involving the use of opiates,” he said. “But as far as the death rate is concerned, the frequency of the death rate is down.”

He said opioids and alcohol abuse are “easily make up the majority of cases” or are related in some way. But Butler County is seeing less violent crime compared to year's past, he said.

Goldinger said there are a number of reasons why the death rate could be dropping in the community, and chief among them is the widespread use of Narcan by first responders, including police, EMS technicians and firefighters who respond to overdoses.

“More people are being saved I think, that is a contributing factor,” he said.

He also said the county last year saw a higher volume of straight fentanyl being delivered to users, but now overdose deaths are being attributed to combined drug toxicity, with fentanyl blended in the mix of other deadly substances such as heroin.

“There has been a significant decrease in fentanyl distribution, at least straight fentanyl,” he said. “But we do still see it mixed with heroin.”

That fentanyl trickles into the community through drug pipelines from bigger cities, such as Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

“Butler is not alone, we are similar to Beaver, Washington, Indiana — all the other counties surrounding Pittsburgh,” he said.

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