Rising opioid toll demands our attention
Every few days, local counties report on the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 and on the number of deaths. The toll continues to grow, albeit at a slower rate than experienced a few months ago.
But the toll in this pandemic is not the only tragic death statistic being watched: The death toll of drug overdoses is also climbing in some counties raising concerns that opioid use may be resurging.
In nearby Berks County, the coroner’s office issued a report earlier this month documenting 59 confirmed drug deaths this year. There were an additional 30 suspected drug-related deaths pending completion of toxicology, acting Coroner Jonn M. Hollenbach said.
2020 is shaping up to be the worst in recent years in Berks. In 2017 and 2019, it took until mid-October to record 89 drug deaths, a figure attained by mid-August this year if all the pending cases are confirmed drug deaths, Hollenbach said. The surge comes even as the resources increase every year and as counties reported fewer deaths last year.
The opioid epidemic had ramped up in the middle of the last decade, with Pennsylvania recording a peak of 5,296 deaths in 2017. (In comparison, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 7,691 lives in Pennsylvania so far this year.)
There is no direct relationship between the coronavirus pandemic and the opioid epidemic, but Stanley Papademetriou, executive director of the Council on Chemical Abuse of Berks County, said he suspects the surge in drug deaths is tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Addiction lives in isolation, and we’ve had isolation,” Papademetriou said. The shutdown protocols have suspended inperson support group meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other fellowships, which has eliminated an effective mechanism against addiction.
Since 2017, when Gov. Tom Wolf declared an opioid abuse emergency, the state and counties have implemented widespread access to naloxone to reverse overdoses and worked to curb overprescribing and safe disposal of drugs to get unused prescription opioids out of homes where there was easy access. Those efforts apparently paid off with Pennsylvania reporting fewer deaths year over year.
In late July, Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania health secretary, released 2019 preliminary data that showed drug-related overdose deaths decreased across the state to 4,348 compared to 2018, when overdoses killed 4,422 people.
Another factor in the rising death toll is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller that is sold by prescription but is often distributed on the black market and mixed with other street drugs to give users a more potent high.
In Chester County, Coroner Dr. Christina VandePol reported fentanyl was found in more than three-quarters of the 104 overdose cases her office confirmed in 2019 and remained by far the most frequently identified substance on toxicology testing.
These statistics show that the fight against drug abuse cannot let up during the other fight against a pandemic. It’s too soon to gauge the full effects of the isolation and life disruption created in the response to the coronavirus, but the overdose death spike in Berks is a warning.
The urgency of battling opioid abuse cannot be pushed aside, and the efforts to prevent overdose and addiction must be reinforced along with education and preventative programs against drug use in all forms.
MediaNews Group staffer Carl Hessler Jr. reported last week on a Montgomery County prosecutor of drug crimes leaving the district attorney’s office to join an intervention effort to prevent overdose deaths. Tonya Lupinacci will be working with the Center for Addiction and Recovery Education at Saint Joseph’s University to teach first responders how they can use their positions on the front line to help people find a path to treatment. Efforts like these are critical to winning the war against drug abuse.
Battling the epidemic of opioid abuse is a fight that continues unabated in our counties. It’s a fight that must continue – a health crisis no less real than coronavirus – and just as important. We’ve made some progress. Let’s keep the focus on continuing that progress to prevent addiction and save lives.