An eye opening event was held Oct. 11 at Salisbury High School as the school hosted the fourth town meeting to discuss the epidemic of opioid and heroin addiction.

State Rep. Dan McNeill, D-133rd, along with representatives from the offices of Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol Services and District Attorney, the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance, the leader of a Lehigh Valley Parent Group, presented an overview of the problem and fielded questions from attendees.

Spread across the SHS auditorium, parents and grandparents, teenagers, people in recovery, treatment counselors and family members who had lost love ones sat intently listening to the speakers.

Lehigh County Assistant District Attorney Joe Stauffer began the evening by guiding the group through a PowerPoint tour of the epidemic, outlining the journey as it makes its way through cities, countries and suburbia’s backyards. Stauffer said the epidemic no longer presents itself as the stereotypical scene in a movie showing a dimly lit building with a user shrouded by shadows in the corner of a room in an abandoned building. It has transitioned to young college students, aspiring models, football players and some of the brightest young minds seemingly headed in the right direction when the addiction derails and alters their journey.

Though the disease is increasing at alarming levels for the age group of 18 to 25 year olds, it carries across all levels of income, age, genders and race.

According to Stauffer, the path to addiction often begins through some sort of trauma, or need for escape from either emotional or physical pain and a legal prescription to heal the patient. Pain killers like Hydrocodone and Percocet are legally prescribed by doctors to alleviate the pain from sprains, breaks and other injuries.

The presentation by Stauffer shared the United States utilizes 99.5 percent of the world’s production of Hydrocodone. He said “prescription pain killers are abused more than all other drugs combined and 2,500 teens each day begin using opioid painkillers” often leading to the drugs being over-prescribed and dependency. When the opioid is no longer prescribed, people who have become addicted to the “pain numbing” qualities of the drug seek other forms of relief and turn to illegally purchasing painkillers.

The street value of opioids is more expensive than the price of heroin and therefore, becomes less appealing to the people with a substance use disorder. Heroin, continued Stauffer, sells for approximately $50 a gram which is the equivalent of a pack of sugar and yields 50 bags of heroin. Many dealers are adding various forms of fentanyl to heroin, producing a much more potent mix responsible for many of the recent overdose deaths.

To prevent additional deaths from an overdose, Stauffer said Poole Healthcare Trust and Capital Blue Cross grants have given all the police departments and school districts in the county doses of Naloxone. The drug can be administered to reverse the overdose and Stauffer said the police departments are utilizing “1.4 doses each day.” Naloxone can also be purchased at pharmacies and McNeill urged attendees to keep some at hand if their child has a substance abuse problem.

For users, the “Overdose Immunity Act” allows those who witness an overdose and are in possession of drugs immunity from being prosecuted for possession but certain criteria including reporting the overdose, remaining on the scene and giving a truthful account of the events to the police must be followed. Drug dealers are not immune from prosecution.

Synthetic marijuana has also come to the forefront of addiction and has been readily obtainable at convenience stores. The drug is packaged in cartoon-like packaging which appeals to youth and provides an euphoric effect on an individual. The “marijuana” is simple plant matter dried and mixed with chemical compounds which alters brain activity and can result in seizures.

An attendee asked what the legislature is doing about the problem of synthetic marijuana, or K2. Stauffer responded the government expanded the list of illegal chemical compounds and as the distributors continue to attempt to create new compounds, the federal authorities also continue to expand the list.

As the popularity of opioids and heroin continue to rise, so do the number of deaths.

In 2015 Pennsylvania suffered a loss of 3,300 lives from an overdose and the numbers for 2016 are on track to surpass that number.

How does the state stop the addiction and subsequent disease?

McNeill said “Harrisburg is going after the pharmaceutical companies” in an attempt to gain some control over the dispensing of pain killers. Control addresses only one branch of the problem and treatment centers also play a crucial part in the demise of the addiction.

Key to the epidemic is the realization the treatment of pain and the avenues to heal or numb pain have resulted in pain “becoming the fifth vital sign,” as explained by Joe Marallucci, Lehigh County assistant administrator for drug and alcohol.

Marallucci said the drug crisis in the Lehigh Valley is overwhelming and often burdens the system; however, his office will respond and offer assistance at no charge to those who reach out offering intake and treatment programs. Nearly 200 people have contacted his office and been given treatment, with or without insurance.

A large focus of the office’s efforts are geared toward prevention and directed at teens and young adults and two of the largest programs were Students Against Destructive Decisions and the Student Assistance Program. Marallucci said he is “proud” of the work being done by those programs.

Teen representatives from Salisbury in the audience were aware of the programs. Marallucci implored the attendees to spread the information about his office to anyone who is seeking help and points out the age of consent to treat a child for mental issues without their parent’s consent is 14, while there was no age of consent for treatment of a drug or alcohol issue.

McNeill said there is a bill in Harrisburg to address the age of consent.

The number of drug use and overdose deaths from drug use is staggering. Bill Stauffer, executive director of Pennsylvania Recovery Organization-Alliance said “Pennsylvania leads the nation in overdose deaths” provoking some audible gasps from the audience. The stigma still surrounds drug use and many have a “negative perception” regarding the disease.

For those who do not succumb to the disease, recovery entails removing the individual from the surroundings that prompt continued addiction and into a program. Getting to a program and successful recovery can take years and repeated attempts. Through addiction and recovery, families and friends suffer from the fallout of the disease as substance use disorder can result in theft and deceit.

Robert Bedford, of Quakertown, and a member of Lehigh Parent Support Group, commended the panel for their work and asked, “How as lay people can the public help?”

“We need to fill these rooms,” Stauffer said. He said often the disease takes out “as many people as the Vietnam War every year.” Resources and education and open discussion are important in the battle.

Marallucci advised the crowd to “Grab your neighbor and bring them to an event like this.”

Liz Kuhns, of Salisbury, responded, “As a parent there are things you can do to help your children but you cannot make them get treatment.”

Marallucci replied that open discussions with children can be the best preventative.

Tammy Szulborski, a former counselor with Teen Challenge, agreed but said “many parents are so busy with their own lives that their children are fading away and parents need to be more involved in their children’s lives.”

From the back of the crowd, John Cramsey who lost his daughter to addiction addressed the panel and audience and commended the students for attending the forum.

“Learn from what these guys are telling you and the money that is available to you through Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol. They have helped many people I know.” Cramsey continued, telling the teens they were the “leaders of the next generation and have to save their peers before they lose them.”

The last speaker of the evening, Donna Jacobsen, leader of the Lehigh Valley Parent Group crossed to the center of the room to detail her family’s journey.

“What does an addict look like?” Jacobsen asked as she walked from one side of the auditorium holding up a picture of her daughter Lindsey, now in five years of recovery. Their journey began in a doctor’s office in 2010 with a doctor prescribing Xanax to Lindsey for treatment of anxiety. According to Jacobsen, though there were some familial precursors for addiction, Lindsey took the prescription responsibly.

A death in the family in Lindsey’s senior year led her back to Xanax.

With passion, Jacobsen described Lindsey’s path from Xanax to single motherhood, the stresses of the freshman year at college and her spiral into deeper levels of substance abuse that eventually led to heroin. While Lindsey made several attempts at rehabilitation, the family discovered they needed to have an education on addiction and began attending support group meetings. Through the meetings, ”the family came together and flourished.”

Jacobsen stressed the need for “families to get help and the addict get aftercare” for the disease.

Even through education some lives will be still be lost. Jacobsen said since 2011, her support group has lost 16 people to overdose. Communication between children and other parents is vital to prevent the disease. The stigma of the disease often prevents people from speaking openly, while other diseases like diabetes and cancer are discussed freely, according to Jacobsen. Discussing and celebrating recovery is also vital.

Jacobsen reports Lindsey is giving back to the community as a case manager for an in-house facility.

The panel thanked the audience for attending the meeting and reminded them if they or someone they know needs help for addiction, reach out for help by calling the Lehigh County office for Drug and Alcohol.