PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/series/heroin-riding-the-rush/)
Heroin and opioid painkillers continue to devastate the state and region in an epidemic that has killed thousands of Pennsylvanians and cost the state billions in collateral expenses.
PublicSource is telling the personal stories of addiction and recovery and examining why more isn’t being done at the state and local levels to fund treatment, reduce the harm of addiction and equip police and residents with the life-saving overdose antidote.
One of the agencies responsible for tackling the growing opioid crisis in Pennsylvania found stable footing in recent years, but that progress could be in jeopardy.
Staggering overdose spikes in Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere show how authorities remain daunted several years into an opioid crisis that kills thousands of drug users every year.
Grants for life-saving services were awarded, and money was spent. Except the money was never really there.
Heroin crisis The federal government has grim news on overdose deaths in Pennsylvania.
Already in the midst of a drug crisis that kills more people statewide than car crashes, overdose deaths spiked nearly 25 percent last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division.
Heroin crisis People are overdosing on a common drug used to treat diarrhea, and it’s another potentially deadly side effect of the opioid epidemic gripping the nation.
As overdoses swelled, state lawmakers created Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, elevating it from a humble bureau, and then made it the department with the smallest operations budget in the commonwealth, according to state financial documents.
They also failed to fully restore funding to local drug treatment, which has been cut in several recent budgets. That means fewer resources amid a worsening crisis and shortages of detox beds and slots for long-term drug treatment.
Heroin crisis The difference in a deadly overdose and a revival can hinge on one thing: Time.
If naloxone is available quickly enough, heroin or opioids will no longer shut down vital functions.
An overdose victim will regain consciousness, and the incident won’t be added to the rising toll of overdose deaths.
VIDEO Pittsburgh police will soon carry a potent, yet simple nasal spray that can bring a person suffering an opioid overdose back from the brink of death and without a high.
Yet other police in the state and region have been hesitant, either saying they don’t need the antidote, or that training and the creation of new policies has slowed the process by months.
One out of every 11 organ donors is a person who has died from a drug overdose.
This statistic is according to new government data reported by The Washington Post.
The trend is a combination of rising drug-related deaths and efforts by advocates to spread the message of organ donation to more communities, even marginalized ones, according to the article.
Is a drug dealer a murderer?
The climbing death toll of heroin overdoses has led prosecutors to aggressively pursue dealers when users end up dead. At the same time, officials have acknowledged addiction as a public health crisis, one that won’t be solved solely with arrests.