English: Modified IM/IV syringe used for “plugging” heroin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Elected officials, law enforcement officers and others proclaim there’s a heroin “epidemic” sweeping the country, and it’s taking hold in rural and suburban communities once considered unlikely places to find illicit drugs.
But nobody knows how many people have died.
Nobody knows how many have overdosed and survived.
Nobody even knows for certain where the problem is most severe.
Map of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HARRISBURG, PA – Concerns about a spate of drug overdose deaths in Pennsylvania have put the spotlight on legislation to create a state database to monitor illegal use of prescription drugs.
The issue surfaced last month during state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Passage of monitoring legislation is key to combatting illegal drug use, Kane said. Prescription drug abuse is often a gateway to heroin use, she said.
“We have a heroin problem,” Kane said. “We also have a prescription pill problem.”
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/drug-overdose-deaths-spur-legislation-1.1647566
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Westmoreland County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nearly all violent crime in Westmoreland County is drug-related, and it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, according to the county’s human services director.
The national epidemic of drug abuse should be treated as a public health issue rather than a crime problem, Dr. Dirk Matson said this week at a Central Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
In 12 years, the death rate from drug overdoses has nearly quadrupled, Matson said.
“The community needs to own the problem,” he said.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/5590452-74/county-drug-matson#ixzz2tPcdTYT4
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
For some inexplicable reason, the “powers that be” in Pottstown seem to think that ignoring rampant drug use in the borough will make it go away. As a blogger who posts news from around the state on a regular basis, I see how this problem has invaded the Commonwealth. Drugs have crept into our smallest and remotest towns.
Drug use and drug dependence seem bring with them crime and violence. Shootings, stabbings, burglaries etc… I have made a point of posting articles along these lines so that anyone who reads this blog will see the alarming rise of drug use and drug related violence in our state. Our Attorney General, Kathleen Kane has been particularly supportive in trying to ferret out drug dealers through various “sting operations” which have taken down a large numbers of dealers around the state.
One drug in particular is making an alarming comeback. Heroin. Pottstown is not immune to this trend.
Our story for today comes from a friend of mine who lives in Pottstown. This person has “walked the talk” by being a public servant for a several years and is also a Mom.
So our lesson for today is that no matter how hard we wish something wasn’t a problem, it will not make it go away.
Thank goodness this Mom had the sense to retrace her steps and remove the threat, thereby protecting many other children. Because of the neighborhood our courageous Mom lives in she unfortunately knows about such things. Honestly, I would not have put two and two together and thought syringe.
So to the “powers that be” I say, “WAKE UP!”
To our courageous Mom I say, “Thank you!”
Editor’s note: And the last two paragraphs are about a heroin death in Pottstown! Wake up borough officials!!!!! Stop denying this problem exists! The man who robbed National Penn Bank on High Street was a heroin addict and high at the time. It’s not a “bump in the road” or a “perception problem” as your soon-to-be ex-mayor likes to tell people.
Heroin-related overdoses jumped nearly 250 percent between 2010 and 2012 in Philadelphia and, depending on how they are measured, slightly more in Montgomery County. In Kentucky, they quadrupled in just one year.
Experts say the culprit is actually prescription painkillers. Abuse of the expensive narcotics leads to tolerance – and cravings for more and more. Heroin is the cheap and more powerful alternative.
Experts point to a series of events that began when the Food and Drug Administration in 1997 proposed easing the way for advertising of prescription medications on broadcast television, which almost no other country does as freely. Industry spending on direct-to-consumer advertising rose tenfold in five years. Prescriptions written for opioid painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin soon rose more than 500 percent.
“As a culture, we are just very used to, ‘You have a problem, get a prescription,’ ” said Jay Unick, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Social work, who studies how public policies affect behavioral health outcomes.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20131107__We_lost_an_entire_generation__to_heroin.html#oec76sPDSpAZbJT2.99
State officials have issued a warning about a heroin like drug that has caused 50 deaths in Pennsylvania already this year, including four in Berks County.
Berks District Attorney John T. Adams confirmed Thursday that toxicology reports have shown that four overdose deaths reported earlier this month all involved the drug fentanyl.
The state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs said Thursday that fentanyl and its derivative, acetyl fentanyl, has been blamed for at least 50 deaths in 15 counties. Five nonfatal overdoses also have been reported.
The state also is awaiting toxicology reports from overdose deaths in several other counties.
Roy's Rants - For Your Information 