State Crisis
BUTLER TWP — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro visited Butler Township on Wednesday, where he huddled with more than a dozen law enforcement and health officials to discuss the state's opioid addiction and overdose epidemic.
Shapiro, in comments after the meeting, noted that Butler County, which has the 14th worst rate of overdose deaths statewide, has been “hard hit” by what he called “the top public health threat in Pennsylvania.”
He said it would take a “multidisciplinary approach” to stem the tide of overdose deaths and opioid addiction, which killed thousands of Pennsylvanians last year.
To that end, Shapiro said, his office is focusing on four things:
Arresting and prosecuting drug dealers;
Destroying unused prescription drugs;
Working to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in the crisis;
Pushing to change insurance company practices and make addiction treatment more accessible.
Shapiro, whose office is leading a national investigation into the practices of opioid manufacturers that's been joined by 40 states, said the effort to hold people accountable for their roles in the crisis would be wide-ranging.
He said alongside enforcement and investigative efforts, the state also needs to focus on education and treatment initiatives, and work to make information-gathering tools like the PAYS survey more welcoming for communities that are currently leery of participating.
The survey, which is confidential, asks students about risky behaviors.
He also said he believes the state is on the right track with its handling of the crisis, calling efforts to hold dealers accountable for selling deadly drugs a positive step in the fight against illegal opioids.
“Of course they (addicts) have some responsibility. They were doing something wrong,” he said. “But that doesn't give the dealer a license to kill them.”
The meeting with local officials — which was closed to the public and the news media — came as Shapiro announced a drug bust in Beaver County that included 22 suspected drug dealers, as well as a New Brighton man who was charged with two counts of drug delivery resulting in death — the first time the charge has been used in Beaver County by state prosecutors, Shapiro's office said.
Rep. Brian Ellis, R-11th, who hosted the event, called the statute, which gives prosecutors an avenue to bring more serious charges against drug dealers whose product kills users, a key component of the state's fight against opioid addiction and overdose deaths.
“I think as the (Butler County) district attorney's office starts to prosecute more and the AG starts to prosecute more of the folks that are (selling illegal drugs) resulting in death, hopefully that could turn the tide a little away from these synthetic drugs,” Ellis said.
As the overdose crisis has deepened, public health officials have warned that illegal opioids like heroin are being mixed more and more frequently with powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil.
Those substances are much more powerful than opioids like morphine, and in addition to killing users can also pose a threat to law enforcement and emergency responders at the scene of an overdose.Butler County Coroner Bill Young said recently that fentanyl is a component in many, if not most, fatal heroin overdoses in Butler County.Other state legislators present at Wednesday's roundtable pointed to parallel efforts to increase access to addiction treatment as another keystone of the state's fight against the opioid crisis.State Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, said he saw broad consensus on the need for so-called “warm handoffs” among the group that gathered Wednesday.Warm handoffs are a practice by which overdose victims are brought to a hospital after being revived by police or emergency responders and introduced directly to addiction treatment experts who can persuade and guide them into treatment.The practice is used in some areas of the state, like Harrisburg, but isn't available statewide. And because of the state's Good Samaritan Law, which prevents law enforcement from prosecuting an overdose victim or someone who called for help after witnessing an overdose, many heroin users refuse medical treatment after being revived from an overdose.“I think everyone is coalescing around that idea,” said Hutchinson of how officials viewed the practice. “Whether it's mandated from the state or worked out locally is what we have to figure out going forward. But it's definitely on the front minds of all the folks in the room.”Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe also pushed Shapiro on Wednesday to consider reworking the state's Good Samaritan Law, saying its protections are working against law enforcement officials' efforts to save lives — something Shapiro said he was open to.“We need to revisit the Good Samaritan Law and see how we can refine that,” Shapiro said.
