Opioid crisis discussed from many points of view at Connellsville town hall meeting
Rebecca Devereaux|蘑菇视频
Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln welcomes community members, public officials and partnering agencies to the first town hall meeting organized to discuss the opioid crisis Wednesday night at New Haven Hose Company in Connellsville.
Rebecca Devereaux|蘑菇视频
Fayette County District Attorney Rick Bower talks to community members, public officials and partnering agencies present at a town hall meeting held in New Haven Hose in Connellsville Wednesday night regarding the opioid crisis in our area.
Rebecca Devereaux|蘑菇视频
At New Haven Hose in Connellsville on Wednesday night Fayette EMS assistant chief Jason Hayes (right) and Rick Adobato, Fayette EMS Chief, demonstrate to community members and public officials in attendance of the town hall meeting, how their agency distributes narcan to an individual who overdoses.
Rebecca Devereaux|蘑菇视频
Connellsville Area Career and Technical student Haylei Mickey receives a hug of encouragement from Fayette County commissioner Dave Lohr, after she shares to a room of community members on Wednesday the tragic story of losing her mother to drug addiction.
CONNELLSVILLE 鈥� Family members who lost loved ones, prosecutors, school officials and recovery specialists discussed the opioid epidemic in Fayette County from many points of view at a town hall meeting Wednesday.
鈥淭his is going to be the biggest challenge we face in the community, the opioid crisis,鈥� Mayor Greg Lincoln said to open the meeting, which drew an audience of more than 100 people to the New Haven Hose Co. social hall.
Michelle McDermott of Connellsville told the audience the tragic story of how her late 23-year-old daughter Jasmine lost her years-long struggle with heroin addiction six months ago.
鈥淚 spent years hiding in a hole afraid to tell anyone what was going on鈥� McDermott said.
She said she was an involved parent and Jasmine was a good student when she was in high school, but a bad break-up with a boyfriend led to her abusing drugs after she started working for the family business.
After Jasmine started acting irrationally and spending long periods of time in the bathroom, McDermott said she found out her daughter was hooked on heroin.
In 2015, Jasmine entered a rehabilitation program but was arrested on felony drug charges about a year and half later.
A second stint in rehab seemed to work and she was clean for four months, but she eventually started using drugs again around the same time the family home was flooded in the Aug. 28 last year, McDermott said.
In September, she said she got a call from the Allegheny County medical examiner蘑菇视频 office saying Jasmine was dead.
鈥淓very addict is worth saving,鈥� McDermott said.
Phil Little, an education and outreach specialist with the state attorney general蘑菇视频 office, said 3,383 people in Pennsylvania died from drug overdoses in 2015.
Heroin was the drug in more than half of those deaths, but prescription drugs were the cause in many others, he said.
鈥淭hat bridge to using heroin starts with prescription opioids,鈥� Little said.
In the county, there have been 11 overdose deaths so far this year, 60 last year, 41 in 2015, 36 in 2014 and 27 in 2013, he said.
Prescription drugs are expensive and difficult to obtain, so addicts switch to heroin because it is cheaper and easy to obtain, Little said.
He encourages residents to discard prescription drugs not in use at drug 鈥渢ake back鈥� boxes in the Connellsville, Uniontown, Brownsville, Redstone Township, Masontown and Perryopolis police departments and in Uniontown Hospital.
Rick Adobato of Fayette EMS said Narcan, a drug that revives people who overdosed, is used three times more than any other drug in the ambulances.
In a recent overdose case, 12 doses of Narcan had to be used to revive the person, he said.
On Friday, Adobato said paramedics responded to a county record of 14 overdoses. He said 13 of the people were revived with Narcan, but one died.
After recalling her former struggles with drug addiction that landed her in jail twice, Stephanie Welc, a certified recovery specialist at Highlands Hospital who is in long-term recovery, said peer-to-peer support from recovery specialists provides addicts with the help they need to stop using.
Welc said the specialists also work with addicts鈥� families.
She said she started using heroin after prescription pain killers she received following a car accident became too expensive.
Haylei Mickey told the audience her mother was addicted to drugs for 14 years before she died from an overdose in 2014.
鈥淚 lost my mother to drug addiction,鈥� Mickey said.
She recalled how her mother stole from her and other family members to buy drugs, and their home was broken in to by people looking for her mother.
Fayette County District Attorney Rich Bower said drug are at the root of many crimes.
鈥淢ore crimes are committed over drugs than anything else,鈥� Bower said.
He said he tries to get addicts into rehab programs and tries to send dealers to prison, but prison is sometimes the only way to save an addict蘑菇视频 life.
鈥淪ometimes they have to got to jail,鈥� Bower said.