Oct 9, 2013 3 min read

We have previously noted the terrible toll prescription drug abuse has exacted on Washington and Greene counties and the whole region in the last several years, and the depth of the problem was outlined in a front page story on Tuesday’s edition of the Observer-Reporter.

The Trust for America’s Health, a Washington, D.C.-based health advocacy organization, released a study that ranked Pennsylvania 14th in the rate of drug overdose deaths, with 15 residents per 100,000 succumbing to overdoses in 2010, and most of those overdoses were the result of prescription drugs being misused. Forty year ago, when President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, illegal narcotics like marijuana and cocaine and opiates like heroin were in the crosshairs; now, pain relievers like Oxycontin are the primary culprits in addiction and death. The Trust for America’s Health and other observers have pointed out that prescription drugs now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined.

The report also pointed out that drug overdoses now surpass deaths from automobile accidents in 29 states. The abuse of legal medications imposes a price above and beyond the lives and health that are ruined as a result – estimates have it that $53 billion is expended on treatment, the costs of funneling offenders through the criminal justice system and squandered productivity.

Several authorities in Washington and Greene counties have attested to the pernicious effects of prescription drug abuse, and Washington’s District Attorney Gene Vittone has made fighting it a top-tier priority.

Unfortunately, the news is even worse for our neighbor to the west and south: West Virginia is leading the pack nationally when it comes to overdose deaths, with the rate having increased sixfold over the last decade. The state has about 28 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents, with one U.S. Attorney based in the southern part of West Virginia telling the Associated Press, “It is absolutely the biggest crime problem in my district. It’s also the biggest public health problem. And it drives so many other aspects of our crime problem.”

The report credited West Virginia for taking strong, proactive steps to try to stem the number of prescription drug deaths, but took Pennsylvania to task for not having a law requiring pharmacists to ask for identification and not compelling doctors to use a monitoring program that tracks the distribution of some prescription drugs.

The commonwealth has also not pushed for wider use of naloxone, which can counteract an overdose, according to the study.

A bill that would establish a prescription drug registry listing all the habit-forming medications available and their users stalled in the state’s House of Representatives earlier this year.

Though opponents say it would unduly invade the privacy of the commonwealth’s residents, it has the support of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and Gov. Tom Corbett chimed in with his support last month.

But the newly released report makes clear that this is an issue that lawmakers must urgently confront. Surely some way can be found to create a registry while, at the same time, building safeguards that would protect and respect privacy.