Good start
There’s little doubt that Pennsylvania, in general, and southwestern Pennsylvania, in particular, are in the throes of a drug epidemic.
A Drug Enforcement Agency study shows that 3,383 drug-related overdose deaths were reported in Pennsylvania for 2015, an increase of 23.4 percent from 2014.
Locally, every county showed an increase in overdose deaths for 2015 from 2014. In Fayette County, the number rose only slightly from 40 to 41, but in Washington County, the number almost doubled from 37 to 73, in Westmoreland County, the number jumped from 88 to 126, and in Greene County, the number increased from nine to 14.
The 2015 statewide drug overdose death rate in Pennsylvania was 26 per 100,000 people, an increase from the 2014 rate of 21 per 100,000 people. The national drug overdose rate was 14.7 percent in 2014, the last year the figures were available.
Locally, the overdose rate rankings for Pennsylvania counties went up everywhere but in Fayette County, which dropped from fourth in 2014 to 16th in 2015 with a rate of 30.68.
Greene County went from 14th in 2014 to fifth in 2015 with a rate of 37.31, Westmoreland County went up from 13th in 2014 to seventh in 2015 with a rate of 35.20 and Washington County went up from 33rd in 2014 to ninth in 2015 with a rate of 35.05.
Of course, the numbers tell only part of this tragic story. They can’t begin to describe the agony and despair of family members who have watched helplessly as their loved ones passed on because of drugs.
But now there might be something that family members can do on behalf of their loved ones caught in the death spiral of drug addiction.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Pittsburgh, has introduced Senate Bill 391 which would create a procedure where a person could have a family member involuntarily committed for drug treatment.
“Essentially what our legislation does is it provides hope to families that have expressed their helplessness,” Costa said. “They really have no means or mechanism to get them the treatment that they believe that person needs.”
The process would begin with a family member filing a petition, followed by a court date, an examination by a doctor who would draw up a treatment plan and then a judge’s ruling that the addicted user must follow the plan.
Of course, there are critics of the plan.
“Frankly it raises a red flag for us,” said Andy Hoover, spokesperson for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “It is a form of detention … so, if a government wants to do that, the bar for doing that is really high.”
There are also questions of how many treatment beds would be available for the addicts and who would pay for the treatment.
Costa said he’s aware of all the concerns and hopes that solutions can be worked out as the bill works its way through the Legislature.
“We’re past the point now where I think we can dismiss it out of hand because of some of the concerns that have been raised,” Costa said. “It’s a crisis, it’s in epidemic proportions here in Pennsylvania and we should talk about it.”
The measure has been assigned to the judiciary committee, where Costa said there will be public hearings on the bill.
“We have to have a conversation about this,” he said. “And that’s what this is designed to do.”
We couldn’t agree more. Involuntary hearings for drug addicts might seem too harsh for some. But it could be the part of the solution to this horrible problem. It’s something that needs to be, at least, looked at.