Recently much attention and information has been provided nationally and locally regarding the use and deaths resulting from the heroin/opioid epidemic. Just today, County Executive Mark Poloncarz addressed the media on a bad batch of heroin being sold in the Allentown area.
Poloncarz reported that where there has been an average of seven deaths per week in the county, there have been seven deaths in the past 24 hours. There have been 55 deaths in the first 40 days of 2017 and it is expected that this year’s total will surpass that of 2016 (256).
At the March 20th Lancaster town board meeting I again requested the town inform its residents of the number of heroin/opioid cases from police reports or from the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Company (LVAC) monthly reports it posts in the town’s communications – giving the number of overdose calls, average age of users and resulting deaths.
In unison the board agreed with that there is a serious heroin/opioid problem in town. They also agreed that the issue is not as prevalent in the schools (as some believe) as in the community. Upon questioning, a police officer present at the work session related that in one weekend alone there were 12 drug related calls in Lancaster.
I requested the community be informed of the seriousness and number of incidents because the average age of the individual overdosing in Lancaster is in the mid-twenties. Parent need to hear that and understand that once their children leave the school system they are not free from the concern that their children will abuse prescription or street drugs.
I also suggested the town use their website to pass along the use issue and suggested organizations and educational outlets to contact to aid family members. I also suggested such outlets make appearances at town board meetings on occasion to inform/update the public on status.
Again, this is a nationwide epidemic where every municipality has a substance abuse problem. Unless we define what the seriousness is by actually identifying the scope of the problem, the so-called, “We are going to address the opioid/heroin problem,” are meaningless words.
Lastly, a shocking revelation came from the police officer when he declared that the overdose problem has grown significantly in the past few years because of the ‘laced’ heroin drugs hitting the streets. He also related how sad and upsetting it is to learn that when abusers hear there is a lethal batch of heroin on the streets, some users will buy those drugs looking for a bigger high or believing they can correctly cut the batch strength to get a bigger high without risk of death.
I would encourage others to seek information where Lancaster stands on the substance abuse problem, what's being done to address it and what services are out there to provide help. We are losing our loved ones at an alarming rate and we spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the political claptrap going on in Washington.