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Attorney general speaks on drug abuse in Pa.

Shapiro: Opioids should be treated as healthcare issue

HARRISBURG — The solution to combating the opioid epidemic is by handling it as a healthcare issue, rather than a criminal one, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Thursday.

Shapiro was the guest speaker at a Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association workshop in Harrisburg where journalists and experts from across the state in the field discussed the opioid epidemic.

Shapiro discussed a number of efforts that his office has taken to combat the epidemic, such making arrests to major drug dealers.

Last week, Shapiro’s office arresting six individuals who dealt $750,000 in carfentanil, fentanyl and heroin over the last year. However, he said, making arrests is not necessarily the solution.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this crisis. It isn’t going to work. . .We need more access to treatment,” a move which, in the longterm, he said would be cheaper than incarcerating drug users.

Shapiro’s office is lobbying to do away with the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid finances for care provided to most patients in mental health and substance abuse disorder use disorder residential treatment facilities larger than 16 beds.

“If we can change this law, we can help people before they turn to crime,” he said.

The attorney general’s office has also been participating in public awareness campaigns to educate people about opioids, he said.

“This isn’t the old Nancy Reagan ‘say no to drugs (campaign).'” The effort is lead by a group of individuals such as survivors and others affected by addiction, he said.

Finding a solution to the opioid epidemic has been a “top priority” in the attorney general’s office. “It is the biggest health crisis in Pennsylvania right now. It claims the lives of 13 Pennsylvanians each day.”

About 4,600 Pennsylvanians died last year of overdose that was linked to opioids, he said.

“You cannot effectively put into words the magnitude of the crisis. It’s a story of tragedy. It’s a story of families being ripped apart.”

Shapiro said attention needs to be drawn to where the drugs are coming from, and added that he is working with attorney generals from across the nation to investigate a number of pharmaceitical distributors and manufacturers. “Much of the root of the problem comes from the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.

Shapiro explained that about 80 percent of opioid-related deaths started with people who obtained the drugs through a legal prescription.

Shapiro said his office is currently working on communication efforts with the medical community to limit the number of narcotics that can be prescribed to patients.

Shapiro’s office recently charged one doctor for distributing 17,500 opioid pills to two patients over two years.

Better border security may also help stop the flow of fentanyl into the country from Mexico and China, he said, but added that a “tangible amount comes from the dark web, which he said may be more difficult to combat. “Building a wall won’t address that issue,” he said.

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