Page 5 - HOH

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 5 March 2019

Cocaine, meth on rise

in Pennsylvania’s

early warning areas

By MARC LEVY
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Methamphetamine and co-
caine use are on the rise in Pennsylvania while pre-
scription drug and heroin deaths are leveling off in
some areas, data that appears to reflect nationwide
trends.
Jennifer Smith, secretary for Pennsylvania’s Depart-
ment of Drug and Alcohol Programs, told a state Sen-
ate committee Monday that the state is seeing “quite
an uptick” in cocaine and methamphetamine use in
three early warning areas.
The Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Johnstown areas
are usually the first to show new trends across Penn-
sylvania, Smith said.
This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in “We kind of knew it was coming, we just didn’t know
Montpelier, Vt. how quickly that trend was going to start shifting
Associated Press across the state,” Smith said in an interview later
OxyContin maker: Lawsuit distorts Monday.
A similar shift has emerged in some Midwestern states,

facts, scapegoats company and federal officials have expressed worry about a
trend nationwide.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported in Octo-
ber a concern that methamphetamine and cocaine
By BOB SALSBERG and pushing prescribers to OxyContin have already use are being seen at much higher levels in areas that
Associated Press keep patients on the drug been addressed by the U.S. haven’t historically been hotspots for those drugs.
OxyContin maker Purdue longer. Court documents Food and Drug Administra- “Cocaine and methamphetamine are definitely on
Pharma is asking a court submitted by the state tion and in a 2007 consent the rise,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman
to throw out a lawsuit filed claimed a member of the agreement that stemmed Rusty Payne said Monday.
by Massachusetts’ attorney Sackler family that owns from an earlier criminal New surges in the use of methamphetamine and co-
general that accuses the Purdue Pharma said at a case. The company also caine mixed with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opi-
company, its owners and launch party for the opioid points to the state’s own oid, have contributed to rising drug overdose deaths
top executives of deceiv- painkiller in the 1990s that data and policies in a bid reported in hard-hit Ohio. Kentucky reported last
ing patients and doctors it would be “followed by a to weaken the basis for year that methamphetamine made a comeback,
about the risks of opioids. blizzard of prescriptions that the lawsuit, including a re- with a 57 percent increase in overdose deaths from
In its most expansive re- will bury the competition.” cent Department of Public 2016 to 2017.
sponse to date, Connecti- The company contends Health report indicating Similar reports are emerging from Philadelphia.
cut-based Purdue argued the state is presenting inter- that fentanyl and other il- Smith pointed to a Philadelphia Department of Pub-
in a motion filed late Friday nal company documents legal drugs — and not lic Health report showing a rising number of overdose
that the state makes “sen- in a misleading fashion. prescription painkillers — deaths that involved cocaine and fentanyl, from 18
sational and inflammatory “Recognizing the weakness played a direct role in the percent in 2016 to 32 percent in 2017.
allegations” in its bid to hold of its legal theories, (Mas- vast majority of overdose Law enforcement seizures, police tracking of sales
the company account- sachusetts) has resorted to deaths in Massachusetts and reports from people needing medical treatment
able for America’s deadly the creation of a sensation- last year. also point to growing use of cocaine and meth in
opioid addiction crisis, and alist and distorted narra- Moreover, Purdue noted, Pennsylvania, Smith said. In October, the U.S. attor-
called for the lawsuit to be tive that ignores facts and state-funded health care ney’s office in Pittsburgh reported the largest seizure
dismissed “as oversimplified mischaracterizes numerous programs cover Purdue’s of methamphetamine in the history of western Penn-
scapegoating based on a e-mails and business docu- opioid products as “brand sylvania.
distorted account of the ments,” the motion states. preferred” medications. But Smith said the opioid crisis might be starting to
facts.” Jillian Fennimore, a Healey’s lawsuit is among In a 2017 report to the wane in some parts of Pennsylvania, which saw some
spokeswoman for Demo- more than 1,000 by state state Legislature, however, of the nation’s steepest increases in drug overdose
cratic Attorney General and local governments Republican Gov. Char- rates in recent years. Some areas of Pennsylvania
Maura Healey, said Mon- that are pending against lie Baker’s administration are starting to see fewer overdose deaths, as more
day the office would fight drug makers in connection sought to connect the dots robust health care and law enforcement programs
the attempt to dismiss the with the opioid crisis that between prescription pain- come online, and more people seek treatment, she
case but did not immedi- claimed more than 72,000 killers and the addiction said.
ately comment on specific lives in 2017, according to scourge. Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
arguments made in the federal statistics. “Compared to the gen- Prevention figures showed a slowdown in overdose
company’s filing. While most of the suits eral population, those who deaths in late 2017 and the first three months of
The lawsuit, filed last year name multiple defendants, received three months of 2018.q
and later amended after the Massachusetts case fo- prescribed opioids in 2011
the company lost a bid to cuses solely on Purdue and were 4 times as likely to
keep portions of it confi- the Sackler family. die from an opioid-related
dential, claims the compa- Purdue contends in its lat- overdose within one year,
ny sought to profit off a cri- est court filing that many and 30 times as likely to die
sis it helped trigger by tell- of the marketing and la- of an opioid-related over-
ing doctors that OxyContin beling issues raised by dose within five years,” the
had a low addiction risk Massachusetts around report stated.q