COVID has sucked up much of the air this past year and has caused many other serious concerns to be pushed to the side. This is not only true in the national picture but also in Lycoming County. While the shutdowns have played havoc with commerce and education, it has also had a terrible impact on those suffering from addiction, especially opioid addiction.

Pennsylvania is now better known as the Heroin State than the Keystone State. A recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette special report found that drug deaths in Allegheny County are three times the national average. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently noted that some street corners in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood that sell heroin are grossing more than $20 million annually! Addiction is harmful enough, but heroin and other powerful opioids are the primary instruments resulting in overdose deaths, and this is where the COVID pandemic has really been costly.

Before the pandemic, the PA Department of Health reported a 19% decline in overdose deaths from 2017 to 2019. However, 2020 saw overdose numbers skyrocket and is expected to be the worst year on record for overdose deaths in our state. And if this is not disturbing enough, rural areas are outpacing urban areas. For example, Blair County in the central part of the state has seen a 78% spike in drug overdose deaths in 2020 compared to 2019.

Our excellent local news site, OnthePulsenews.com, highlighted the plight we are facing in Lycoming County. Heroin is the primary villain but is rapidly being challenged by Fentanyl and Methamphetamine becoming the local drugs of choice. Meth is highly addictive, and Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times more powerful than morphine. The endless search for the greater high keeps introducing more and more potent drugs hitting the streets. On the Pulse News noted that an even more powerful drug used by veterinarians on horses, Xylazine, has begun to hit our local streets.

The popular opinion of explaining the increasing numbers of overdose deaths both locally and beyond during the pandemic is generally attributed to the depression of isolation as well as the limited access to therapy such as Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Though these met virtually, the lack of group support had to have taken an emotional toll. Quite frankly, the COVID shutdowns made the desperate even more desperate.

This is a problem that impacts all of us. Besides the personal destruction, drug addiction wrecks families, often leads to crime and taxes the emergency services in the local hospitals. It was just these concerns that caused Judge Nancy Butts to seek community involvement back in 2012 to form a Heroin Task Force. Judge Butts’ leadership and support from Lycoming Clinton West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission director Shea Madden work with sub-committees in the medical field, government support agencies, businesses, law enforcement, faith-based groups, and others to bring awareness to the problem, and seek to direct those suffering from addiction issues to find the help they needed.

Unfortunately, that ground-level, indigenous, public-minded movement was interrupted by those who felt that a top-down, executive focus was more appropriate. It was not long before the initiative just faded away. But the problem has not gone away; if anything, it has become much worse. Rather than lament the past, we need to renew that public spirit that at least made a push back to the increase in drug addiction in our area.

Probably almost everyone in Lycoming County knows someone or knows someone who knows someone with serious drug issues. Don’t stand on the sidelines — be an agent of hope. Direct anyone with a drug or alcohol issue to contact the Lycoming Clinton West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission, 213 West Fourth Street in Williamsport, telephone number 570-323-8543. Their caseworkers are highly professional and process 2,000 individuals each year. They know what to do and know how to help. Drug addiction in Lycoming County is everyone’s problem, and everyone can be part of the answer to it.