Drugs other than heroin used in 70 of 126 fatalities in 2015, coroner says

Though dozens of people died from heroin overdoses last year in Westmoreland County, officials said prescription medications and other drugs are a growing concern.

A report issued Thursday by Coroner Ken Bacha on 2015 death investigations shows more than half — 70 of the record 126 fatal overdoses — involved drugs other than heroin.

“This is the biggest jump we've had from one year to the next,” Bacha said.

Most of the fatal overdoses involved more than one drug, and in some cases a combination of many substances, he said.

While heroin was still the leading killer among young victims, medications such as opioids, anti-depressants, pills for anxiety, antihistamines and illegal substances also took a toll.

In one recent fatal overdose, tests revealed the man had 17 drugs in his system, Bacha said.

The record number of fatal overdoses in the county last year shows a jump of 473 percent since 2002, when 22 deadly overdoses were reported.

Despite efforts to curb the problem, the coroner's office has recorded 21 fatal overdoses in January and February.

“We have a real freaking big problem, no doubt,” Bacha said.

Dirk Matson, co-chairman of the county's drug overdose task force, said that in the last five years, prescription medications accounted for 53 percent of drug-related fatalities.

“It's the root of the epidemic. Most heroin addicts start with prescription medication,” Matson said. “A big part of this battle is people can't get their head around that it's not just young people and heroin.”

County officials have taken a more aggressive approach to curtailing the overdose problem.

Commissioners formed the drug overdose task force, which drafted educational and public service messages. The group recently obtained a three-year, $435,000 grant from the Allegheny Foundation to hire an executive director and install a help line to take calls seven days a week.

Westmoreland Community Action will coordinate the grant funds. Executive Director Tay Waltenbaugh announced Thursday that Tim Phillips, the agency's drug prevention coordinator, was hired as the task force's executive director.

Phillips will be asked to adopt Project Lazarus, a drug prevention and educational effort founded in North Carolina, to coordinate community efforts to curb overdoses.

“I want to be a change agent to bring together stakeholders to address this public health crisis,” Phillips said in a statement. “With this platform, I'll be able to concentrate my efforts on reducing opiate poisoning using the skills I've honed in prevention education.

“I very much look forward to collaborating with grass-roots organizations like Faith in Action and other faith-based groups, the recovery community, and Sage's Army, and many others doing good work in this area,” he said.

Prescription drug abuse was a focus of Project Lazarus' efforts in North Carolina. Phillips said Westmoreland has the same problem.

“A lot of our concern is we need to look at prescription drugs that are killing people. They're as lethal as heroin. Maybe we need to call them heroin pills so people will notice,” Phillips said in an interview.

The coroner's statistics show drug users are combining prescription and illegal drugs to find a better high, he said.

“These people are makeshift chemists out there. It's scary,” Phillips said.

Officials see promise in a new state registry and monitoring program for prescribed medications. Last month, Gov. Tom Wolf's administration signed a three-year, $1.48 million contract with a Louisville company to oversee the effort.

While officials hope monitoring reduces prescription drug overdoses, they warn it could lead to more heroin addiction.

“We've seen in other areas that once a registry is in place they've seen heroin use go up. We need to ramp up our efforts to stop it,” Phillips said.

That started last year as county officials helped with a community-wide distribution of naloxone, an antidote that reverses the effects of opiate-induced overdoses.

Officials said they hope naloxone and public education reduce the number of fatal overdoses.

“We're really anticipating this year to be a pivotal year,” Bacha said.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.