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State Attorney General makes stop in Greene County for addiction roundtable

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WAYNESBURG – Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro stopped in Greene County Thursday as part of a push to show his office’s efforts to combat the heroin epidemic in rural areas of the state.

The round table discussion was comprised of police chiefs, treatment providers, elected officials and other officials working in the field of addiction throughout the area.

Shapiro said talking to local leaders gave him a sense of what’s hitting Waynesburg and the surrounding area hardest.

“When you’re on the ground, you get a sense of the magnitude of the problem. It becomes less about statistics and more about real people,” he said.

Greene County Regional Police Chief Michael Natale asked Shapiro what can be done on the local level when pharmacists and doctors are over prescribing narcotics. Greene County also faces the problem that many, especially in Natale’s jurisdiction, people are going across the state border to Morgantown, W.Va. for treatment, the chief said.

Shapiro acknowledged that struggle and said it will take collaboration between agencies, something he said he’s witnessed here locally.

“It seemed to me that there was good coordination and cooperation between the various agencies, which is good to see,” Shapiro said. “I heard, loud and clear, that there’s just simply not enough personnel. There are not enough treatment beds available. There’s not enough alternative medications available. There’s a real concern about the pharmaceutical industry. These are all things we’re addressing, but to hear it directly is really important.”

Shapiro’s three roundtable meetings throughout the state focused on rural regions, which he said face unique problems with the opiate epidemic.

“These are the regions that, in many ways, are hardest hit by the epidemic,” Shapiro said. “Maybe not raw numbers, but proportionally. They’re oftentimes the communities that are under served by medical treatment and by law enforcement.”

One thing that will help fight this issue is data.

Trista Thurston/Observer-Reporter

Trista Thurston/Observer-Reporter

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, left, answers a question from Greene County Commissioner Archie Trader during an opiate roundtable discussion Thursday at Waynesburg University.

Shapiro called on officials like Greene County Coroner Greg Rohanna to make reporting overdose deaths a priority. Rohanna responded that with no computerized system, which would take money and personnel, those numbers are hard to come by. It gets expensive, Rohanna said, especially when autopsies and toxicology reports are continually becoming more expensive for the county.

Greene County Commissioner Dave Coder said he hadn’t seen a request from Rohanna for money to track overdose deaths, but the coroner assured him it’s something he’s brought up.

Many in attendance discussed an allocation of funding, especially for treatment. Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox said funding treatment is important, but wondered where that money would come from.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this epidemic, but we can’t treat our way out of it, either, she said.

“For every addict, there are a whole lot of victims that are laid to waste in their wake,” Fox added. “Jail serves a purpose here because I think the offender needs to know there are consequences for their behavior.”

Shapiro said even though more funding would be helpful, it also requires being smart about the fundstate and local government allocates to treatment and other ways to combat addiction.

“Now look, let me be very clear,” Shapiro said. “A lot of people deserve to be in jail, and that’s my primary responsibility, is to lock up those who are dealing and who are violent, who are a danger to the community. But there are many people who need treatment. There are many people who could use additional support. We need to make sure we have funding for that.”

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta said there’s no detox facility in Greene County, and it’s something people are begging for.

Shapiro said treatment and the need for local options are the DA’s main takeaways from the conversation Thursday.

“I think was was pretty extraordinary was you have law enforcement and community health providers and local elected officials all around the table, and while we all have different jobs, everybody was basically saying the same thing: we need more treatment. We need more help for these individuals. Yes, we need to lock up those who need to be locked up, but we need more access to treatment. I heard that from everybody here,” he said.

Shapiro testified before the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in Williamsport Thursday morning. After stops in Tioga and Clinton counties, he made his way to Greene County to meet with local leaders.

The testimony highlighted collaboration between law enforcement agencies, combatting the diversion of prescription drugs and disposing of unused prescription narcotics. Since taking office in January, Shapiro’s office has partnered with police to destroy over 33 tons of drugs and on average arrested three drug dealers a day, a release announcing Thursday’s visit said.

Just hours later and blocks away from Shapiro’s visit, a town hall on the same topic started. As band music streamed in from the Halloween parade outside, about 75 people gathered inside the Greene County Courthouse to discuss drug addiction and mental health.

The third annual town hall featured speakers such as local treatment providers and Matt Pelton, a clinical aide and recovery coach with Adult and Teen Challenge of Western Pennsylvania. A graduate of the program, Pelton has been sober for two years and is working on his counseling degree. Pelton shared his story on the road to recovery with those in attendance. He moved around from state to state, in and out of jail before he realized there was “no geographic solution to an emotional problem,” he said.

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