Jan 24, 2015 2 min read

Since Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation for heroin addiction, you would think a fiercely waged war on this particular drug – or, at least, a battle to treat those who have been ravaged by it – would be in order.

Unfortunately, lawmakers have armed a state agency charged with combatting it with peashooters and slingshots rather than heavy artillery.

According to the statewide investigative news organization PublicSource, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, which was created five years ago, has only three employees and an annual budget of $466,000 for general operations, which is less than a quarter of the amount that was recommended at the department’s inception, and far less than the 22 positions that had been proposed.

In fact, the department is facing such a severe shortage of manpower that it doesn’t have enough personnel to write grant requests that could allow it to get its hands on badly-needed resources and fill some vacant positions.

Despite the enormity of the problem, fueled in large part because heroin has become painfully cheap, funding for county treatment programs has stagnated, according to PublicSource.

But the commonwealth ends up paying the costs in other ways. An estimated 3,000 people have died as a result of heroin addiction across Pennsylvania since 2009, and that’s not counting the addicted who died as a result of suicide, accidents or secondary health issues springing from their habits. Their deaths have damaged families, friends and workplaces and cost an unknowable number of dollars in wasted potential. Those lucky enough to not be claimed by the Grim Reaper when they were addicted have sometimes lost their livelihoods and have had to seek treatment elsewhere – frequently in jail, where they end up after having committed crimes to support their habit, and where the rehabilitation process is much more costly.

Will the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs get the funding it needs now that there has been a changing of the guard in Harrisburg? Don’t put any large wagers on it. Newly inaugurated Gov. Tom Wolf and the Legislature are going to have to figure out how to fill a $2 billion budget gap, and wrangle over a possible severance tax, most of which would probably be earmarked for Pennsylvania’s public schools.

But resources need to be found somewhere. Heroin addiction is a problem that demands more than lip service and good intentions.