CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) — While Pennsylvania is making progress in the fight to curb fentanyl overdoses, fentanyl is still all too common in our communities.

On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released his new special report on fentanyl’s role in the opioid crisis and its devastating impact on Pennsylvania’s families and communities.

“Fentanyl, which can be 50 times more powerful than heroin, is often present in street drugs such as heroin and cocaine, but users don’t realize it,” DePasquale said.

“Beyond the tragic cost in lives lost to overdoses, the fentanyl epidemic is driving billions of dollars in costs to Pennsylvania taxpayers and our economy.”

Auditor General DePasquale’s new report, titled “A Deadly Dose: Fentanyl’s Impact on Pennsylvania,” notes that:

• Pennsylvania taxpayers paid at least $178 million for opioid-related hospital stays in 2017.
• Fentanyl contributed to a 65 percent increase in overdose deaths between 2015 and 2017.
• Fentanyl was among the top three deadliest drugs in nearly every Pennsylvania county that tracked the data in 2017.

“While Pennsylvania was able to achieve an 18 percent drop in overdose deaths from 2017 to 2018, mainly due to the increased access to overdose reversal medications like naloxone, the state still saw more than 4,000 overdose deaths last year,” DePasquale said. “Fentanyl’s deadly strength also poses a risk to first responders and law enforcement officers who may come into contact with the drug.”

Naloxone, also known under the brand name Narcan, can quickly reverse the toxic effects of an overdose and save lives, but it does not treat the root disease: opioid use disorder.

Law enforcement agencies in our region are also continuing to deal with the deadly fentanyl crisis in our local communities.

“We have a couple of ongoing investigations involving overdose deaths,” Chief William Peck of the Clarion Borough Police Department told exploreClarion.com. “We see it sometimes being sold as heroin, which can turn deadly in a heartbeat.”

Chief Peck also noted that with the increase in methamphetamine use in the region, they’ve also seen cases of fentanyl mixed with meth, also posing a danger to unsuspecting users.

Authorities are also seeing the dangers of fentanyl for emergency responders.

“It’s something that’s always a concern from a law enforcement perspective,” noted Trooper McGee, Community Service Officer for the Pennsylvania State Police — Troop E. “All of our first responders are trained to be extremely cautious with anything involving suspected heroin because of possible fentanyl exposure.”

“Anywhere you have heroin, you’ll find fentanyl,” Sugarcreek Borough Police Chief Robert Wenner said. “Fentanyl intensifies the effects of heroin, and that’s what a lot of the long-term addicts want.”

Chief Wenner added that he’s seen first-hand the danger of death by overdose in a case that occurred in Oil City early this year.

“What your average person doesn’t understand is that for some addicts, not all of them, but some long-term addicts, they want the stuff that’s killing people because they’re always chasing that next bigger high.”

According to Chief Kevin Anundson, of the Franklin Police Department, while fentanyl has taken a backseat to meth in the Franklin area, it remains an ongoing problem, and is now being found mixed in with methamphetamine and even marijuana.

“It seems like it’s their go-to to put in just about everything right now,” he noted.

Chief Vince Markle, of the Brookville Borough Police Department, explained that while many of our local communities are small, that doesn’t make them immune.

“The major problem is that it is everywhere, the whole way across the state. It doesn’t matter if it’s a large city or a small borough, fentanyl is there.”

DePasquale’s special report makes three primary observations.

First, that the impact of the opioid and fentanyl crisis in Pennsylvania is broad, deep and costly, causing devastation in communities across the state and the nation. Opioid treatment and deaths cost the United States approximately $500 billion per year in health care and treatment costs, criminal justice costs, lost productivity and mortality costs, according to the While House Council of Economic Advisors. Pennsylvania’s share of that cost is roughly $25 billion per year – or nearly $2,000 per person.

Second, that the federal government needs to enact a comprehensive plan to curb the illegal importation of fentanyl and its precursor ingredients, most of which comes from China. While much of it comes through the U.S. mail, it also comes through legal ports of entry and evades detection.

Finally, that emergency treatments and long-term recovery options need to be adjusted to fully benefit the maximum number of people. For example, the state should expand partnerships with local authorities, physicians and advocacy groups to reinforce the effectiveness of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), to diminish lingering stigma of its use and to adequately fund a range of MAT options in prisons, jails and recovery facilities. The state should also expand access to preventive measures, such as fentanyl test strips, which are currently illegal in Pennsylvania.

“Test strips that allow users to determine if fentanyl is present are one of the best overdose-prevention measures developed so far,” DePasquale said. “The General Assembly should act to make test strips legal and widely available because they can help to save lives.”

DePasquale’s report also makes the following ten recommendations for state and federal policymakers and legislators to consider:

1. The human and financial costs of the opioid crisis are immeasurable and will continue as the supply shifts to fentanyl. These costs must continue to be addressed at all levels of government.

2. In U.S.-China negotiations, the Trump administration should clearly prioritize and provide incentives for the Chinese government to block exports of fentanyl and its precursors.

3. Congress must use its oversight authority to ensure that the Trump administration is appropriately funding and tasking its agencies to implement and enforce new laws — and laws Congress has already passed — to confront the fentanyl crisis. Congress must not allow the Trump administration to focus on actions not supported by data about how fentanyl gets into the U.S.

4. The General Assembly should legalize fentanyl test strips for use across Pennsylvania.

5. State officials should continue to fund naloxone distribution and lift any barriers to access for healthcare workers, opioid users or family members.

6. State officials should expand partnerships with local authorities, physicians and advocacy groups to reinforce the effectiveness of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), to diminish lingering stigma of its use and to adequately fund a range of MAT options in prisons, jails and recovery facilities.

7. The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine should do as much as it can to simplify the requirements for X-waivers to prescribe buprenorphine/Suboxone and other MAT prescriptions to increase convenient access to physicians and healthcare workers to treat more opioid users who want to recover, and eliminate waiver limitations for nurse practitioners.

8. The governor and General Assembly should ensure they are not inadvertently creating barriers to treatment for opioid users.

9. State officials should consider student loan repayment, home and auto loans, and other benefits to steer students — and mid-career workers — to the fields of addiction medicine, behavioral health sciences and nursing. The governor’s Workforce Development Command Center could be part of this process.

10. The state should help counties fund certifications and deployment of Certified Recovery Specialists.

The full report is available online here.