Hundreds vie for about 25 jobs at McKeesport marijuana firm
Gabriel Perlow has a license to practice law.
Thursday afternoon, though, the shirt-sleeved CEO of PurePenn LLC was distributing water bottles along the three-block-long line of sweltering job aspirants outside McKeesport’s Palisades Event Center. They had come to fill out an application for Mr. Perlow’s company.
“I’m very appreciative that people are standing out here in this immense heat to join our team,” he said as he grabbed another bottle.
PurePenn is one of 12 firms, and one of two in southwest SEE JOBS, PAGE A-5
number was 26.7 per 100,000 people.
Le a d e r s fr o m ei g h t county, state and federal agencies and the University of Pittsburgh delivered the newly released statistics during a joint news conference in Philadelphia. Deaths were attributed to fentanyl and similar substances, hero in , co c a i n e , be n z o d i - azepines, prescription opioids or other illicit drugs.
“This is not a new problem for us. But, by God, this is the worst it has ever been in … perhaps forever,” said Jeremiah A. Daley, executive director of the Philadelphia/ Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas. The federally funded program helps to coordinate 35 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the Philadelphia area and in parts of Delaware and New Jersey.
The DEA enlisted the help of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy to produce this year’s report on overdose deaths. The school’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit ana- lyzed the 4,642 drug- related deaths using data from coroners and medical examiners in 64 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The report marks an effort to take a data- driven approach to understanding the dramatic rise in opioid- related overdoses in the state. It provides comprehensive data about who has overdosed and where, something that officials said is not compiled anywhere else and will offer “a road map for how we are to combat this crisis,” said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who also spoke at the news conference.
The crisis took a sharp turn last year with the increased prevalence of fentanyl, a powerful pain reliever that is manufactured legally and illegally. People who abuse the drug often consume it with other substances such as alcohol, cocaine and heroin, according to Janice Pringle, who directs the Program Evaluation and Research Unit at Pitt’s School of Pharmacy.
Fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and many times that of heroin.
Among t he dr ugs i nvolved in fatal overdoses in Allegheny County, Medical Examiner Karl Williams said, “Fentanyl continues to completely push out heroin.”
The report notes that Allegheny County led the state in overdose deaths in which both fentanyl and other opioids were present. Overall, the county recorded 648 overdose deaths in 2016, compared with 424 in 2015, a 53 percent increase.
While the report indicated t hat i n 2016 such deaths occurred with the highest frequency in urban areas, the death rate grew at a quicker pace in rural counties than in urban counties. Deaths increased by 42 percent in rural counties and 34 percent in urban counties over 2015.
The report also noted that people in the 25- to 34- yearold age group accounted for 30 percent of all overdose deaths, despite representing only 15 percent of the state population. Men are more likely to die of a drug- related overdose — they accounted for 70 percent of fatal overdoses in 2016, the data show.
Officials at Thursday’s news conference said state and federal agencies have stepped up enforcement efforts against illicit drug suppliers, including doctors and pharmacists who prescribe and dispense the drugs. They added that enforcement alone is not enough.
“We’re taking a very holistic approach to this,” said Col. Tyree Blocker of the Pennsylvania State Police. “This is a public health issue. We’re not going to be able to arrest our way out of this.”
“Day in and day out ... [ agencies] work side by side, share information and work collaboratively,” said Mr. Shapiro, whose office is distributing 300,000 pouches to pharmacies and hospice and home- care organizations that deactivate leftover pills, making them safe to throw away when the pills are shaken in the pouch with warm water. They are to be given out with opioid prescriptions. “We’ve got to continue to tackle this in a multidisciplinary way,” he said.
“We need to put a lot of energy into the ways in which we can change the underlying culture of those who want to use these drugs and the availability of these drugs,” Ms. Pringle added.
Pitt’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit, which Ms. Pringle founded in 2006, plans to use the overdose data to help 40 Pennsylvania counties to develop public health programs aimed at reducing the number of fatal overdoses.