Expert: Opioid epidemic response 'woefully inadequate'

Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht on Wednesday criticized the U.S. and Southwestern Pennsylvania's response to the opioid and heroin epidemic as “woefully inadequate.”

Wecht said the nation and the region are not focusing enough efforts or resources toward education, prevention and addiction treatment.

Wecht, a consulting forensic pathologist for Armstrong, Fayette, Greene and Westmoreland counties, was keynote speaker at a substance abuse forum at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood.

He said society's opinions of drug addicts will have to drastically change before substantive improvements are made.

“Too many people believe we should throw every drug user in jail. I don't believe people who are addicted to drugs are criminals. ... Now drug sellers are an entirely different matter,” Wecht said.

Wecht said he believes intensive drug prevention programs should begin in elementary schools and anti-drug-use education should be held throughout the school years; and rehabilitation programs such as the Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court drug court program should be adequately funded.

“You're naive if you think one or two days in detox or a couple of weeks in drug rehabilitation will do the trick. It's simply not the way (drug rehabilitation) works,” Wecht said.

“I don't have a simple answer, but it's going to take time, effort, scientific research and planning before we come up with a plan. And I think once we do come up with an adequate program, it will wind up saving money over incarceration,” Wecht said.

He noted that he believes the change in attitude over drug use has to begin “at the top,” noting U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recent comments that marijuana is “only slightly less awful” than heroin.

“That's a statement of ignorance, and what we're dealing with today,” Wecht told the 75 people in attendance.

He added that in his career as a forensic pathologist, performing over 20,000 autopsies and consulting on 40,000 other cases, he has never ruled one cause of death as due to marijuana use.

Earlier this month, Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha announced overdose deaths had set a new record at 174 in 2016, increasing by 38 percent over 2015. The office recorded 126 deaths in 2015.

Fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased 364 percent from 25 in 2015 to 119 last year, Bacha reported.

This month, Dr. Karl Williams, Allegheny County's medical examiner, announced 610 people died from drug overdoses, surpassing the 424 deaths recorded in 2015.

Opioids were found in about three-quarters of those victims, Williams said. Most of them were either heroin or fentanyl, he said.

Wecht said it's not just the heroin and fentanyl, but combinations of drugs he's finding in overdose victims.

“Last week, I had one case where there were 12 different drugs in a system. The average is four to six drugs. ... It's just not only heroin and fentanyl,” Wecht said.

Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2860 or ppeirce@tribweb.com