Jul 3, 2018 3 min read

Headline after headline has underscored how dire the opioid epidemic is, and a study released last week by the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health indicated it could be even worse than we thought.

It found up to 70,000 deaths from opioid overdoses likely happened across the country between 1999 and 2015, but were not reported as such because medical examiners and coroners listed the cause of death as “unspecified” drugs.

The study also found Pennsylvania led the nation in unreported opioid-related deaths, and if these deaths are included in the statistics, the commonwealth would move up to No. 7 on the list of states that have the most opioid fatalities.

It’s easy to throw up your hands and surrender to hopelessness when it comes to the toll heroin, fentanyl and other opioids haven taken on our society. But stories that appeared in the Observer-Reporter and other Pennsylvania newspapers Sunday offered some reason to believe progress is being made, that hope should not be abandoned.

As part of a cooperative statewide project, “State of Emergency: Searching for Solutions to Pennsylvania’s Opioids Crisis,” we looked at the formation of Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition in October 2016, and how that transformed the way officials combat the issue. A coordinated strategy and the creation of a three-year plan to whittle away at overdoses and criminal activity related to drugs has perhaps started to bear fruit. The number of overdose deaths in Washington County declined to 97 in 2017 from a record 110 in 2016.

Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone believes such initiatives as a Vivitrol program, where inmates receive a monthly shot that dulls the portion of the brain that causes them to get high when they use opioids, has helped. He also points to longer stays in treatment for users who are trying to shake the habit.

“It’s a stigma issue,” Vittone explained. “Not all addicts are involved in the criminal justice system. A lot of these people have had no contact with us. A lot of them are veterans who have served their country. No community in Washington County is immune to this. Rich or poor, it doesn’t discriminate.”

Another story in the project looked at how the Vivitrol program, and a regime of treatment, has benefited Joanna Temple. She’s a 33-year-old Washington woman who saw her brother and fiancé die of drug overdoses while she was serving time in jail. Temple was behind bars because of crimes she committed stemming from her own habit.

She told us, “When you’re addicted to drugs, you have withdrawals and cravings, and that shot prevents a lot of that. For myself, I had no cravings, no thoughts about using, no nothing.”

As with so many of the other trials and predicaments that bedevil us today, we can look to history for some comfort when it comes to the opioid epidemic. The United States was beset with an outbreak of morphine addiction after the Civil War, and legions of cocaine addicts were created in the early part of the 20th century when the drug was peddled as a cure for hay fever and blocked nasal passages. We overcame those, and we can overcome this.

We can take comfort, but we can’t be complacent.