BUTLER TWP — Butler County's deadly start to 2017 was front and center Tuesday night at Butler Intermediate High School auditorium, during the latest installment in a series of public forums on the county's opioid crisis.

The fourth installment in a series of public gatherings that seek to confront the epidemic of opioid addictions and overdoses again featured the stories of recovering addicts. But it also put a tough question to county officials:

Is Butler more dangerous today than it was a decade ago?

The answer isn't a simple one to articulate, said Thomas Doerr, the president judge of Butler County Courts. The county has fewer juveniles in its court system today than it did a decade ago, he said, and fewer juveniles in court-ordered treatment for heroin addiction as well. But it's also undeniable that Butler County is in crisis.

“The answer is, yes and no,” Doerr said. “Our community is much safer than it was 10 years ago. What we have is a very specific problem.”

That problem, Doerr said, is an epidemic of opioid additions and overdoses that killed 74 people in 2016. So far this year 21 people have died from drug overdoses, according to county officials.

Chief deputy Mark Pfeffer, of the Butler County Sheriff's Office, said the total would likely be higher without the anti-overdose medication naloxone. Police officers in Butler County have used the antidote on 10 overdose victims so far this year, Pfeffer said. In 2016 officers used naloxone 21 times, he said. Those numbers don't include uses from fire departments EMS personnel and other emergency responders, Pfeffer said.

Police officers are using naloxone to save more lives from opioid and opiate overdoses. But Doerr and assistant district attorney Mark Lope acknowledged that through the first four months of the year officers have also encountered a string of violence that has shaken Butler and surrounding communities.

Since Dec. 31, when East Butler resident James S. Martin was found stabbed to death in his home, police in the county have been investigating four different homicides. Last month Rashaan K. Adams was shot to death in a Wick Street apartment in what investigators have said was a disagreement over money; last month Butler Township police charged Keith Lambing with killing his girlfriend's 4-year-old son, Bentley Thomas Miller, in a township motel; and state police continue to investigate the death of a Kittaning man, Gregory W. Bosko, whose body was found in Clearfield Township but may have been killed in Lyndora, according to investigators.

“It has been a very bad start to the year,” said Lope, who also acknowledged that authorities believe “most, but not all” of the crimes were related in one way or another to opioid users or dealers.

That deadly stretch — as well as evidence that the drug trade in Butler has fundamentally shifted toward what Doerr called more “professional” peddlers of illicit substances — prompted District Attorney Richard Goldinger last week to announce a tough-on-drug-traffickers initiative called “Not in My Backyard.” The initiative is aimed at pursuing higher bond amounts and sentences for both local and transient drug dealers. Lope said the initiative would apply to all cases in the county court system that haven't yet been resolved.

“We're going to try and make Butler an unattractive place to deliver drugs,” he said.

For those whose job it is to help get opioid addicts off drugs and into recovery, the focus continues to be education and communication.

The lack of those two things is what Betsy Duncan, a recovery counselor at Southwest Behavioral Health Management, believes got society here in the first place.

Duncan said a common drama that plays out within families struggling with addiction — an inability to admit something is wrong and isn't being addressed — played out between the institutions that were supposed to be helping stop America's addiction epidemic more than a decade ago.

“We may be sitting in this position because a decade and a half ago the criminal justice system and the behavioral health system both thought they had the solution to this,” said Duncan. “And no way could we come together.”

Today, however, both the crisis and the need for collaboration are apparent to people like Rachel, Mike and Georgette — three former addicts who work at recovery houses in Butler County.

Recovery houses are places where recovering addicts can live, but must abide by various requirements and schedules. The homes provide a structured living environment for people who are working to overcome addiction, and often use things like 12-step programs to help addicts overcome their disease.

The trio said that while there are nearly a dozen such houses in Butler County already, there's still a need for more housing for male addicts seeking help with recovery.

Mike said people need to realize that it's a safe and structured environment that's unlikely to produce trouble. The point is to give recovering addicts structure, he said. If they caused problems they wouldn't be in the program to begin with.

“We're just people,” said Mike. “And you're pretty much guaranteed to have neighbors who aren't drinking or drugging. You can't get much better than that.”

Jason Beckwith, a recovering addict who overdosed at a Walmart store in Cranberry Township in 2008, reminded people that addicts who overcome their disease make progress because they want to get better. It's a choice only they can make for themselves, he said. But people can help by showing compassion and asking them to share their stories.

Beckwith struggled with addiction and substance abuse after the deaths of his 7-year-old son and the child's mother in 2009 and 2010 respectively, urged the community to show compassion to those struggling with addiction.

“Compassion is not situational,” Beckwith said. “I believe compassion is for all people. People need help, and the best way to do that is helping them believe they can change. Be that person to share hope.”

Beckwith said he has been clean since June of 2015, and is currently enrolled in courses in pursuit of a certification as a recovery specialist.