Local efforts to fight overdose epidemic highlighted
Pennsylvania State Police troopers stand during a ceremony Tuesday for firefighters and police officers who have used Narcan to save lives in Washington.
Carroll Township police Officer Michael Fendya shakes hands with Gary Tennis, secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Fendya was recognized Tuesday for using Narcan to save a life.
Gary Tennis, right, director of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, speaks Tuesday to Washington County Coroner Tim Warco, District Attorney Gene Vittone and attorneys at Peacock Keller law firm in Washington.
Sue Pryor recalls waking up in a hospital six years ago following an overdose on two bags of heroin she injected.
It was a few more years before she got sober for good. Now, she advocates to get the overdose-reversal drug Narcan into as many hands as possible and to push back against the stigma of addiction.
“I have to be a voice for the people that are still suffering,” she said.
Pryor, a recovery specialist with Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission, spoke at a ceremony Tuesday during which officials highlighted first responder efforts to curb the deadly results of overdoses from heroin and other opioids.
The event occurred while Gary Tennis, secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, visited Washington County.
The number of deaths nationwide from heroin and opioid painkillers has multiplied several times since the early 2000s.
Washington County has followed the national trend. Overdoses from all drugs accounted for nine deaths in 2001. Last year, there were 73, and the county got national attention when 25 overdoses – three of them fatal – were reported in August alone.
Dr. Mitch West, of Gateway Rehabilitation, said solving the epidemic has to begin on the local level.
“There’s no magic bullet,” said West, who is part of U.S. Attorney David Hickton’s heroin task force. “It’s everybody coming together as a community.”
Earlier in the day, Tennis spoke with officials from Washington School District, county District Attorney Eugene Vittone, county Coroner Tim Warco and others at the offices of Peacock Keller, a Washington law firm.
During the informal discussion, Tennis said the agency is stepping up efforts to address the root cause of the ballooning addiction and overdose statistics.
He and other experts put the blame at the feet of the pharmaceutical industry, which they say has encouraged physicians to overprescribe strong medication for pain that can be treated by other means.
Deaths from prescription opioids now outnumber those from any other drug, including heroin.
“And the folks on heroin – four out of five are starting on opioids,” Tennis said.
Even with more awareness, addiction is a complex public policy problem for the many stripes of officials who encounter it.
“The difficult part is that it’s multigenerational,” said Superintendent Roberta DiLorenzo of Washington School District. “It’s really hard to break that cycle for a child who’s grown up not feeling pain because everybody self-medicates in some way.”
Tennis said more people should be aware that private insurance companies in Pennsylvania are required to offer members a minimum of 45 days of residential drug and alcohol treatment.
“Managed care may not manage that down,” Tennis said.
Tennis also stressed family members of people addicted to opioids are able to obtain naloxone, and also encouraged people to get rid of unused prescriptions.
Twenty-two departments received awards Tuesday for providing drop boxes for unused medication.
Area first responders who’ve used naloxone to reverse overdoses in the last year were also recognized.
Act 139, passed in 2013, allows police to carry the drug, which has no physiological effect on those who haven’t taken opioids.
Cheryl Andrews, executive director of WDAC, said 23 police departments in the county are now equipped with the drug. That doesn’t include state police, who also stock it.
North Strabane police Officer Chris Wilson used a naloxone nasal spray kit on a man who’d overdosed at a house in the township. The patient was a recovering addict who relapsed and was laying on the floor, barely breathing, when Wilson arrived.
In 20 or 30 seconds after Wilson administered the spray, the patient regained consciousness, began taking full breaths and sat up.
Tennis said there’s a stigma about addiction that makes many people, including some police officers, reluctant to carry the drug.
Wilson said he hasn’t seen that attitude among his colleagues.
“I’ve got a broader view of looking at addiction as a disease, and it’s hitting everybody anymore,” he said.