Dec 19, 2014 1 min read

Heroin and prescription drug abuse became the number-one problem for law enforcement in Western Pennsylvania in 2014, U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton said in September after he formed a task force to address the epidemic.

Drug-related overdoses have quadrupled in Pennsylvania, which has the seventh-highest number of them among U.S. states, he said.

Washington County had just two drug overdose deaths in 1992, as compared to 58 in 2013.

Lawmakers also in 2014 enacted a prescription drug monitoring program using software designed to expose those who “doctor shop” to obtain more opiates than necessary, and physicians and pharmacists who abuse the system for profits.