Tag: opioid epidemic

"Times" Readers Share Stories Of Addiction & Recovery

New York Times readers shared their personal experiences with opioid addiction and recovery.

The opioid epidemic can be covered with statistics and numbers: the 72,000 Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2017 or the five-fold increase in babies born dependent on drugs.

However, that only captures some of the picture. To really grasp the effects of the opioid epidemic, The New York Times asked readers at the end of last year to share their experiences with addiction and recovery.

Charlotte, North Carolina resident Cindy Chandler, 64, reminded readers that the issue of drug addiction has been affecting families since long before it started getting press coverage. Her brother overdosed on heroin in 1997 at age 40.

“He took the entire family on psychological roller coaster rides throughout his life. We never knew when the phone rang from then on if it was the end for him,” Chandler wrote. “Turns out it took 28 more years of family torture.”

Some readers, including Michele Sevik, a 58-year-old from Vermont, described the initial euphoria that kept them coming back to opioids.

“It was like offering an emotional and social paraplegic a drug that would suddenly allow them to hop out of their wheelchairs and walk and run,” Sevik wrote. “Even knowing about addiction, even knowing about HIV, it was irresistible.”

Stephen DePasque, a 35-year-old from Pennsylvania, was more productive than he had ever been when he started using opioids, but the new energy was short lived.

“Before long, the upkeep of my back-pocket superpower took the top spot on my priority list,” he wrote.

St. Louis resident Heather Hudson, 27, found that even facing the heartbreak of addiction head on wasn’t enough to make her stop using.

“At age 26, my little brother and I found our big brother dead on the floor from an accidental fentanyl overdose. I actually took the rest of his dope and did it in a McDonald’s bathroom while the coroner was loading him into a van,” she wrote. “As sick and twisted as that is. But that’s addiction. Sick and twisted. It’s like being in an endless tunnel. You can see the light at the end, but you never feel like you’ll reach it.”

Despite the heavy answers, some readers wrote in to share hope for recovery.

“Recovery is not an exact science, or a recipe that can be applied to different people in different ways. But many of us do recover,” wrote Katharine, a 29-year-old from Philadelphia. “I wish I knew the answer to this current crisis. All I can do is keep my hand open and available to the next person who may need help.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 January 2019
Fentanyl Test Strips: Important Tool Or False Security?

A recent study suggests that the testing strips should be widely distributed though some experts say the strips are not an adequate prevention measure.

Last year, fentanyl became the most deadly drug in the country, responsible for more overdose deaths than any other substance. In addition to being found in — or even replacing — opioids like heroin and prescription pills, fentanyl has increasingly been detected in drugs like cocaine, whose users are at increased risk for overdose because they have not built up a tolerance to opioids.

That’s why some people say fentanyl test strips are an important tool to help cut back on opioid overdose deaths. Some users say they often have no idea whether the drugs they’re buying contain fentanyl, which is many times more powerful than other opioids and can cause an overdose in even a small amount.

The test strips are able to detect the presence of the synthetic opioid, empowering users to make an informed decision about whether to take the drugs and about how much to use.

“Evidence to date suggests that people who use drugs often do not know whether fentanyl is present in what they are about to consume,” authors of a report prepared by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health wrote last year.

The school conducted a study that found fentanyl test strips to be effective at detecting the drug. The researchers then interviewed people who use drugs about whether or not they would use the test strips: 84% said they were concerned about fentanyl, and 85% of people who thought they had taken fentanyl in the past said they wished they had known beforehand. Despite the drug’s powerful high, only 26% of users surveyed said that they sought drugs with fentanyl.

“Drug checking was viewed as an important means of overdose prevention, with 89% agreeing that it would make them feel better about protecting themselves from overdose. Interest in drug checking was associated with having witnessed an overdose and recently using a drug thought to contain fentanyl,” study authors wrote.

The study’s authors suggested that more agencies distribute fentanyl test strips.

“Drug checking strategies are reliable, practical and very much desired by those at greatest risk of overdose,” they wrote. “Drug checking services have the potential to facilitate access to treatment for substance use disorders and other essential services, as well as provide real-time data about local drug supplies for public health surveillance.”

However, Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Elinore F. McCance-Katz wrote in an editorial on the SAMHSA website that fentanyl test strips are not a prevention measure that people should be focused on.

“Can’t the nation do better?” she wrote.

She continues, “The entire approach is based on the premise that a drug user poised to use a drug is making rational choices, is weighing pros and cons, and is thinking completely logically about his or her drug use. Based on my clinical experience, I know this could not be further from the truth.”

Like needle exchanges, fentanyl test strips are likely to remain a controversial —but potentially lifesaving — tool.

View the original article at thefix.com

14 January 2019
Arizona Campaign Aims To Scare Kids Away From Opioids

“It kind of has a horror movie feel to it,” said one government official about the new opioid public service announcements.

Officials in Arizona are taking inspiration from scary movies in an attempt to keep kids and teens from experimenting with opioids, despite controversy and conflicting reports over whether scare tactics actually work to deter teens from using drugs.

Two 30-second public service announcements aim to highlight the dangers of opioids by showing a teen trapped in a pill, with the message “Opioids: Getting in is easier than getting out.” One ad features a boy, while the other features a girl. At the end of the videos, a lifeless hand is shown next to pill bottles.

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ said the images are intentionally frightening.

“It kind of has a horror movie feel to it,” she told Arizona Central. “This is part of the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act. They (the Arizona Legislature) appropriated a little over $400,000 for us to develop this educational campaign and it had to be graphic, and it had to show the law enforcement consequences of opioids.”

The campaign is meant to target kids ages 12-17 and will appear on websites that people of those ages use often, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Pandora.

In addition to the videos, the campaign features still images that include a teen drowning in pills, and another behind bars, which turn out to be hypodermic needles. They all link to the state’s “Something Better” website, which provides information on the dangers of drug abuse.

Christ said that focus groups showed the movie-style ads caught teens’ attention while delivering the message.

“There is a scary component of it. People don’t realize how dangerous and how addictive these medications are,” she said.

However, Graeme Fox, who does community outreach for a needle-exchange program run by volunteers in Maricopa County, said the images and videos might not be as effective as lawmakers are hoping.

“It could be a good thing but scare tactics aren’t necessarily the way to educate youths,” Fox said. “The state may think it’s a good thing but there are studies that show after a certain amount of time, scare tactics aren’t effective.”

The campaign will run through June.

Results from the most recent Monitoring the Future Survey, which interviews 8th, 10th and 12th grade students about their substance use, found that rates of opioid use are actually falling among teens, reaching their lowest levels to date.

“With illicit opioid use at generally the lowest in the history of the survey, it is possible that being in high school offers a protective effect against opioid misuse and addiction,” said Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We will be focusing much of our new prevention research on the period of time when teens transition out of school into the adult world and become exposed to the dangerous use of these drugs.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 January 2019
Will A Border Wall Help Curb The Opioid Epidemic?

Experts discuss the impact, if any, a new border wall would have on stemming the flow of drugs entering the US through Mexico.

As the government shutdown continues, President Trump is digging in his heels, insisting that an expensive border wall is essential to national security, in part because it would hamper the flow of opioids into the country.

“Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl,” Trump said during a prime time speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday, according to Vox. “Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War.”

While it’s true that the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses is shocking, and that most of the drugs consumed in the US come over the Mexican border, it’s silly to think that a wall will stop that flow. That’s because most drugs come into the country via legal posts of entry, usually smuggled in vehicles.

In fact, the Drug Enforcement Administration has said that only a “small percentage” of drugs are carried over the boarder at illegal entry points, according to The Atlantic.

In addition, if a wall was erected, cartels would simply adjust the ways they reach the lucrative US market, according to Elaine Carey, dean of the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at Purdue University.

Cary told The Washington Post, “Drug trafficking businesses are very nimble organizations. The way opioids flow or any drug or narcotic, it’s from all different ways. Yes, it comes across the border, but it comes through airports, ships, on trucks, too. A wall’s not going to do anything unless you deal with the demand.”

Without addressing the causes of addiction on American soil, building a wall would do little to diminish availability of drugs, she said.

“If we build the wall, demand is still going to be there.”

If Trump really wanted to reduce the amount of drugs coming into the country, he would be better off investing in additional border security staff than spending billions on a wall, according to Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

“A wall alone cannot stop the flow of drugs into the United States,” Wilson told Vox in 2017. “If we’re talking about a broader increase in border security, there could be some — probably minor — implications for the overall numbers of drugs being trafficked. But history shows us that border enforcement has been much more effective at changing the when and where of drugs being brought into the United States rather than the overall amount of drugs being brought into the United States.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 January 2019
Lawsuits Aim To Benefit Kids Born Dependent On Opioids

One West Virginia law firm is reviewing up to 200 cases of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

Last year, dozens of lawsuits were filed against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors for the role they play in the opioid crisis.

Many were filed by states and cities in an attempt to recoup the costs they’ve shouldered as the result of what they say were irresponsible prescribing and misleading marketing of opioid pain pills.

Now, a movement is at hand to try to recoup damages for the hundreds of infants born dependent on opioids, many of whom will have life-long health affects.

“I really think that we lose the real human toll that the opioid crisis has taken if we’re not bringing cases on behalf of actual human beings who were victimized by the flood of pills that were pumped in here,” Booth Goodwin, an attorney in Charleston, West Virginia, told The Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Goodwin’s firm, Goodwin & Goodwin LLP, is reviewing up to 200 cases of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

Goodwin has already lodged a lawsuit on behalf of Andriana Riling, an 11-year-old from West Virginia who has NAS and is being raised by her grandparents.

“Her case is just kind of typical for what you hear from throughout Southern West Virginia,” Goodwin said. “She lost her father even before she was born in a drug-related car accident. Her birth mother is hopelessly addicted to pills and opioids in general.”

The lawsuit alleges that Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions and Pharmaceuticals, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and Mallinckrodt all bear responsibility for Riling’s condition for their role in making and distributing the opioids that Riling’s mother took during her pregnancy.

Although most of the lawsuits against the opioid manufacturers and distributors have been lumped together under the jurisdiction of a federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio, Goodwin argues that cases involving children with NAS should remain separate so that the unique details of each case can be shown, rather than lumping them together in a class action suit.

“Each one of them is affected a little bit different,” he said. “And we want to make sure that we focus on each one of these individual children.”

He said that the individual cases will focus more on the specific ways these children have been affected by the practices of the companies that are named as defendants. The federal case in Ohio will focus more on the overarching — and perhaps illegal — practices that companies had in place. Because of that, Goodwin’s firm filed a motion to keep Riling’s case from being combined with the Cleveland cases.

“The complaint contains very specific allegations, unique to this case, with respect to prescribing doctors and pharmacies,” attorneys wrote when they requested that the case be heard separately. “Although there are generalized facts at issue in both [the Cleveland cases] and the Rilings’ case regarding the reprehensible conduct of the defendants, this overlap is minor.”

They continued, “[The Cleveland cases] potentially involve comparative fault on the part of the plaintiffs, while Riling, a child born opioid dependent, is an innocent victim who is inherently and completely blameless.”

While Goodwin waits to hear whether the case will be heard on its own, his law firm is continuing to look for children with NAS, which affected up to 5% of births in West Virginia during the peak years of the opioid epidemic.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 January 2019
Firefighters Open Treatment Center For Their Own

The center provides beds for 60 firefighters to get treatment for substance use disorder, mental illness or other behavioral health conditions.

The opioid epidemic has touched people from all walks of life, including first responders, who often find it hard to reach out for help in a work culture that involves putting others first and brushing vulnerabilities aside. That’s why a new treatment center has opened, aimed specifically at helping firefighters who need support with addiction and mental health issues.

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) opened the Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Treatment and Recovery last year just outside Washington, DC. It is set up similarly to a firehouse and provides beds for 60 firefighters to get treatment for substance use disorder, mental illness or other behavioral health conditions, whether they are associated with work or not.

“It’s really a state-of-the-art facility for our membership,” Ray Maione, a captain in the Phoenix Fire Department and vice president of member services for the United Phoenix Firefighters, Local 493, told Arizona Family. “To see it come to fruition is really pretty impressive; a lot of work went into this.”

Maione said that the services are much needed for firefighters who are hesitant to seek help.

“We’re problem solvers, I mean we run into burning buildings when they’re on fire, so people think, and we think, we’re invincible,” he said. “And sometimes it just builds up. . . . When a firefighter reaches out I know they’ve already exhausted every option they have and they’re in crisis.”

On-the-job injuries can expose firefighters to potent painkillers, and traumatic events can erode firefighters’ mental health, he said.

“We started to notice a big increase in suicides, a big increase in opioid addiction,” Maione said.

Tyler Ramsey, a firefighter, first started using opioids for a back injury but noticed with time that he was becoming dependent on the pills.

“You get a prescription for an opiate or a pain medication, and at the start it’s need-based,” said Ramsey. “. . . Once it gets a hold of you, you use that as a crutch.”

He told himself that because a doctor prescribed the pills they weren’t dangerous.

“I guess it gives you a false sense of security, almost, that it’s prescribed by a medical professional,” Ramsey said. “But being a fireman, I thought, ‘Oh I can control this. I don’t need to ask for help. I can manage this.’”

However, when thoughts of opioids began taking over his day-to-day life, he realized he had a substance use problem.

“It’s the last thing you think about before you close your eyes at night and the first thing when you open your eyes in the morning, which is a pretty terrible place to be,” he said. When Ramsey reached out to colleagues, they got him into rehab that day, and they help him stay sober.

“I’m happy, upright, breathing and living a normal life again,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been afforded a second chance.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 January 2019
The State Of Harm Reduction Around The Globe

A new report breaks down the status of harm reduction programs around the world.

Even as opioid use continues wreaking havoc on some parts of the globe, the availability of harm reduction measures worldwide are relatively stagnant, as documented in a massive new report released this month.

The number of countries with needle exchange or opioid substitution treatment has stayed relatively stable over the past four years, and a lack of funding in middle- and low-income countries has stunted the growth of service options available in some of the places most severely impacted, according to the “Global State of Harm Reduction” 2018 report issued this month by Harm Reduction International.

But there’s a significant exception to that trend: North America. Here, as opioid overdose figures rise, the harm reduction response is blossoming. Naloxone access, fentanyl testing strips, and needle exchange programs have become more common in the US and Canada – all possible signs of forward-thinking responses to a well-documented crisis.

“The US now has the fastest annual percentage rise of drug-related fatal overdose ever recorded,” the report notes, “with an increase of 21.4% between 2015- 2016 alone.”

Currently, the United States has 335 needle exchanges – a 37% increase since the last harm reduction report. Meanwhile, Canada has taken harm reduction efforts a step further, opening a total of 26 supervised injection sites. That sort of progressive action is still barred by federal law in the US, though some communities have considered addressing it both legislatively and in local action plans.

There are, of course, still significant gaps. The availability of harm reduction in prisons is “woefully inadequate, falling far short of meeting both international human rights and public health standards,” according to the report.

And, despite the response in North America, service offerings worldwide have stayed more stagnant.

“While our coverage of harm reduction policies and services has evolved and broadened in scope, the same cannot always be said for harm reduction in practice around the world,” the report notes. “Despite [the] heavy burden of diseases, effective harm reduction interventions that can help prevent their spread are severely lacking in many countries.”

Currently, 86 countries offer some sort of needle exchange program – down from 90 in 2016. Bulgaria, Laos and the Philippines have shuttered their exchange programs in the face of punitive drug policies, while Argentina and Brazil have stopped offering such services as the number of injection drug users falls in those nations.

While the number of countries that offer exchanges has fallen slightly, the number with opioid substitution drugs available has gone up a bit. Since 2016, Cote d’Ivoire, Zanzibar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine, Argentina and Costa Rica have all introduced or re-introduced medication-assisted treatments.

Overall, methadone is still the most commonly prescribed of those treatments, with buprenorphine falling into second place. Despite research espousing the use of heroin-assisted treatment as a harm reduction option, it’s only available in seven countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. Though that’s still considered a radical option in many countries, it’s just one of the solutions experts have increasingly examined as more potent drugs continue appearing in underground supply chains.

“The rise of illicit fentanyls themselves is just about the clearest case one can make for harm reduction: despite a literally poisonous supply, millions of people are still taking street opioids in an underground market that lacks quality control,” journalist Maia Szalavitz wrote in an introduction to the report. “It’s hard to argue that anything short of providing a safer supply – both through traditional medications like methadone and buprenorphine and via prescription heroin, hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and perhaps others – will be able to end the crisis, if done to scale.”

And, aside from the continued toll of opioid use, amphetamine use is on the rise as well – but harm reduction options for speed users “remain underdeveloped,” according to the report. Safe consumption sites – in the regions where they’re available – continue to focus largely on injection use, leaving out those who smoke or snort their drugs. And, free drug testing services are limited mostly to festivals and clubs.

“While this all paints a bleak picture of harm reduction worldwide, there are examples of innovation and perseverance in this report that give hope and demonstrate that progress is possible,” the report’s authors wrote. “It is important, too, to not overlook the fact that harm reduction has come a long way over the past two decades. The evidence is clearly in favour of harm reduction. It is time that more countries acknowledge this and implement the services that are proven to advance public health and uphold human rights.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 December 2018
Feds Will Prosecute Fentanyl Dealers More Harshly in Baltimore

The feds are set to crackdown on fentanyl sellers in Baltimore, where there is expected to be twice as many overdose deaths as homicides in 2018.

As part of the Trump Administration’s tough-on-crime stance, federal prosecutors will begin trying more fentanyl cases in federal court. They will be utilizing stronger resources and mandatory minimum sentences in an attempt to deter people from selling the deadly synthetic opioids in Baltimore, where there are expected to be twice as many overdose deaths as homicides this year.

Writing in an op-ed for The Baltimore Sun, US Attorney for Maryland Robert K. Hur said that the tougher tactics will hopefully curb fentanyl sales. As of last week, all fentanyl arrests in Baltimore are being reviewed by federal prosecutors who will decide whether the case will proceed in the state or federal system. This is part of the federal Synthetic Opioid Surge (SOS) initiative.

“Federal prosecutors will pursue more cases involving fentanyl, bringing federal resources, laws and prison sentences to bear on those dealers who pose the greatest threat to public safety,” Hur wrote. “Word should spread that if you sell fentanyl on the streets, you run a very real risk of federal time.”

Federal drug charges carry mandatory minimum sentences. Someone convicted of distributing 400 grams of fentanyl will face 10 years in prison; 40 grams will carry a five-year sentence. If the fentanyl is found to be involved in a death, there is a 20-year sentence. Because federal sentences are served in prisons far from home and have no possibility or parole or suspension, they’re seen as more harsh than state sentences.

“But criminal enforcement is essential to ending this crisis,” Hur wrote. “We need to target street dealers as well as corrupt pharmacists and medical providers. Treatment and prevention alone won’t stop the sellers, who are driven by profit and greed.”

Hur shared the story of a 35-year-old woman who died of a fentanyl overdose. Before her death she texted a friend, “I don’t want to [be] this way. I worked and fought too hard to throw it all away. I almost overdose[d] the other night. I don’t know what to do.”

“Law enforcement organizations know what to do in order to prevent more of these tragedies, and we are resolved to do it,” Hur wrote.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions first announced the SOS initiative in June, starting the program in 10 districts that were hard-hit by the opioid epidemic.

“We at the Department of Justice are going to dismantle these deadly fentanyl distribution networks. Simply put, we will be tireless until we reduce the number of overdose deaths in this country. We are going to focus on some of the worst counties for opioid overdose deaths in the United States, working all cases until we have disrupted the supply of these deadly drugs,” Sessions said in a press release at the time.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 December 2018
DEA, Drug Distributors Failed To Protect West Virginia, Report Says

A new report highlighted the way millions of opioids flooded small towns in West Virginia over a 10-year-period with ineffective government oversight.

Despite the fact that “inordinate volumes of opioids” were flowing into West Virginia between 2006 and 2015, drug distributors continued to fill outrageous orders, and the Drug Enforcement Administration took ineffective measures to enforce regulations that could have slowed the flow of opioids, according to a federal report released last week.

The report, “Red Flags and Warning Signs Ignored: Opioid Distribution and Enforcement Concerns in West Virginia,” was prepared by House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It found that in 10 years, 20.8 million opioids were sent to pharmacies in the town of Williamson, which has a population of just 3,000. Another town, Kermit, which has a population of just 364 people, received 9 million. Overall, between 2007 and 2012, West Virginia pharmacies received more than 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills.

“These troubling examples raised serious questions about compliance with the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), administered by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),” report authors wrote.

The report reviewed the practices of drug distributors, who are responsible for filling orders by pharmacies. Five companies, including the three largest in the country and two regional distributors, were reviewed. These were AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co., McKesson Corporation, and Miami-Luken, Inc.

The companies have a legal obligation to alert the DEA when they suspected that drugs were being diverted into illegal use. However, case studies reviewed in the report “raise sufficient concerns as to whether these companies fulfilled their legal obligations to prevent drug diversion.”

In fact, “the extraordinary volume of shipments in West Virginia was a signal of possible breakdowns in distributors’ oversight of their customers, including their suspicious order monitoring systems. Yet the actions taken by both distributors and the DEA contributed to — and failed to stop — this problem,” report authors wrote.

The report also found that the DEA’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, which is meant to help detect abnormal drug distribution patterns in real time, was not used to monitor distribution, but only to reinforce cases after they’d been flagged through other means. Additionally, the agency revoked the registration of fewer doctors and pharmacies thought to be contributing to drug diversion during the height of the pill crisis.

Authors of the report said that the findings could help explain how the opioid epidemic unfolded across the nation.

“Taken altogether, the Committee’s report outlines a series of missteps and missed opportunities that contributed to the worsening of the opioid epidemic in West Virginia,” they wrote. “This investigation identified flaws limiting the effectiveness of the distributors’ compliance programs and DEA’s enforcement. While focused on a narrow part of West Virginia, the report raises grave concerns about practices by the distributors and the DEA nationwide.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 December 2018
Meth, Opioid Abuse Intertwine In Pennsylvania

“They go hand-in-hand. Many are literally just making meth, just to sell it, and support their heroin habit,” said a Pennsylvania police chief.

As the nation focuses on the dangers of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, use of methamphetamine has continued to rise around the country. However, in rural Pennsylvania, law enforcement said that there is no sense in parsing the issue because opioid abuse and meth abuse are so closely tied.

“They go hand-in-hand. Many are literally just making meth, just to sell it, and support their heroin habit,” Berwick, Pennsylvania Police Chief Ken Strish told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In Berwick, 46% of drug arrests over the past six years have involved meth. And it’s not just the much-talked-about meth coming from Mexican cartels. Strish said that small shake-and-bath meth operations are still detrimental to his community.

“We’ve seen a four-apartment complex burn to the ground relatively quickly because of a meth fire,” he said.

The problem is so widespread that the town has earned the nickname “Methwick,” Strish said.

“Yes, our numbers were very intense for a community of 10,000,” he added.

Still, while 55 people had been arrested for meth possession in Berwick this year, 86 were arrested for heroin possession.

In Dubois, Pennsylvania, another rural town, law enforcement and community members gathered at a fundraiser for the family of Officer Patrick Straub, who was killed in September during a head-on crash with a driver who had “off the charts” amounts of methamphetamine in his system.

“He was a good person that deserved better. He loved his wife, loved his child,” DuBois City Police Cpl. Matthew Robertson said. “Always spoke about his child. Beautiful little girl.”

The driver, 32-year-old Corey Alan Williams, was also killed in the accident, leaving behind two daughters. The tragedy was just the latest meth-related incident that has left DuBois families reeling.

Speaking at the fundraiser, DuBois Police Chief Blaine Clark said that the city has seen a 129% increase in drug reports, driven by meth use.

“It’s crazy. I’ve never seen something boom as quick as it did,” he said.

Clark said that he sees long-time users turn into “zombies,” leaving their kids uncared for. “You go into these houses and there’s kids and, like, three or four meth heads laying around,” he said.

Both Dubois and Berwick are along a major highway that makes it easy for dealers and drug users to travel to and from the surrounding states with drugs.

“We’re getting a lot of local people going down to Akron, Ohio. That’s a big hot spot,” said Clark. “They’re going to Johnstown area, and they’re going to Philly and Pittsburgh.”

That’s why law enforcement has been targeting dealers who are bringing drugs into the area.

“We want to get the dealers who are bringing this poison in, that’s who we’re after,” Clark said.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 December 2018