Oct 24, 2017 3 min read

No one must be reminded of the terrible toll the opioid epidemic is having on our region and its people.

The number of overdose deaths is climbing in both Greene and Washington counties, and beyond, as more deadly synthetic versions of opioids smuggled into the country keep people hooked and eventually kill them.

A report by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post earlier this month even highlighted the cozy relationship between major prescription drug distributors and members of Congress, who passed a bill in 2016 to handcuff the Drug Enforcement Administration’s efforts to crack down on massive, but legal, opioid shipments to doctors.

That prescription pain medication is a gateway to harder drugs, such as heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil.

But to combat the epidemic, we must first understand it.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Overdose Prevention Research Program and Allegheny County’s medical examiner recently formed a partnership to examine detailed overdose statistics to give law enforcement and the public the information they need to understand what is happening. The initiative has expanded into the Overdose Free PA website that includes real-time statistics showing the ages, genders, ethnicities, locations and drugs involved in overdose deaths.

Since the website launched in July 2016, two-dozen coroners from across the state are uploading their data from overdoses.

It can be time-consuming, but it’s still an important step in tracking where deadly batches of heroin and fentanyl are coming from and who is dying because of them.

Every coroner in southwestern Pennsylvania is participating in the project except Washington County Coroner Tim Warco and Greene County Coroner Gregory Rohanna. Neither could be reached for comment to discuss the reasons for not providing overdose data to the website, even though both counties have experienced a spike in drug deaths over the past three years.

Both counties had more than 50 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents in 2016, one of the highest rates in the country.

While overdose statistics are eventually made public through the DEA’s annual report, which it began in 2015, by then the data is old and can’t be used to make an immediate impact on the community.

Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone and other county officials used some of that DEA data, along with other information from Pitt, to formulate a plan for treatment at the jail.

After reviewing annual statistics, Vittone said they learned that some people were dying of overdoses immediately after leaving the county jail because their tolerance to opioids had lessened.

In response, they boosted drug rehabilitation for some jail inmates, while offering Vivitrol treatments – an injection that blocks the euphoric feeling that come from opioids – to others before leaving.

“We were putting out fires,” Vittone said of the epidemic. “The problem is you’re not working from data and evidence.”

Now, law enforcement and drug counselors here have more data to view what is happening in other counties.

But that’s not enough.

With more county coroners joining the Overdose Free PA project each month, it’s time for Warco and Rohanna to do the same.

The drug epidemic will likely get worse.

But with a complete data sheet available immediately – rather than months or a year after an overdose death – we can finally begin to seriously address the problem.

We won’t know the full scope of this battle until all 67 coroners in the state are participating.

That can’t happen until Greene and Washington counties are on board.