Casey addresses heroin crisis
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey singled out Washington County’s heroin crisis in a statewide news teleconference he hosted Thursday on new federal legislation designed to increase treatment for people who are addicted to opioids.
The Democratic lawmaker cited an Aug. 23 article in the Washington Post that focused on the county, where 16 people died in one day from heroin overdoses that left “families torn apart,” he said.
“This challenge, this horrific heroin addiction challenge in our communities is increasing every month and every year,” Casey told reporters from across the state when he announced his support of two new bills designed to give addicts easier access to comprehensive treatment and help physicians better treat them.
He also said Pennsylvania has the third-highest number of heroin deaths in the nation, a rate that has surpassed the number of deaths the state experiences each year from automobile accidents.
Pennsylvania had nearly 2,500 drug overdoses last year, and 800 of them involved heroin, according the state coroners’ association. Casey said there were 47 heroin overdose deaths in the state in 2009.
“That is a reality that is almost difficult to comprehend,” Casey said. “It’s unacceptable for us to look at that number and just throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do.”
Washington County saw 38 drug overdose deaths between January and July this year, a number that surpassed the year-end total in 2014. That number has since increased to 50.
One of the bills would raise the cap on how much buprinorphine – a drug used to treat opioid dependencies – physicians can prescribe to patients, and also remove the cap after the first year. It also would give nurse practitioners more abilities to treat addicts.
“We want the folks on the battlefields, so to speak, who are trying to provide good treatment, we want to make sure they have more of an opportunity to do that,” Casey said.
The other proposed law would create block grants to states to enable them to “plan, implement and evaluate activities that prevent substance abuse,” he said.