Addressing the Opioid Crisis
Our neighbors throughout the 177th District deal with the disruption and dangers wrought by the opioid crisis every day. We are not alone in this — it is a problem throughout the city and across the commonwealth. That is why it was so disheartening to see my Republican colleagues in Harrisburg allow the Opioid Emergency Declaration to lapse last August. However, I am not discouraged from my efforts to address this crisis.
Joe believes that a comprehensive solution is required: one that takes into account the law enforcement and public health challenges of the problem, and with a focus on safety for everyone. Joe does not support establishing safe injection sites, but rather believes we need to put energy into common sense actions with proven track records of making the entire community safer.
Addiction is often a symptom and so we must heal the cause if we are to expect lasting solutions. Joe’s service on the Pennsylvania Task Force on Warm Hand-offs has informed his view that we need improved access to long term in-person treatment in order to address the underlying causes of addiction, such as mental health ailments and trauma. Joe supports legislation to provide funding for programs that implement a more comprehensive approach to overcoming addiction, one that doesn’t merely serve as a temporary detox but aims to treat the motivations behind the drug use.
Joe is hard at work with community leaders to find a comprehensive solution that takes into account the law enforcement and public health challenges of the problem, and focuses on safety for everyone. Joe believes we need to put energy into common sense actions with proven track records of making the entire community safer.
He supports the following direct measures and policy actions:
Joe believes common-sense public safety initiatives are an important part of the solution.
Just as a family needs help to cope with a loved one who is suffering from addiction, so too our communities need to feel safe outside of their homes. They cannot be trapped by other people's afflictions. Joe believes security starts on the front step by strengthening community policing measures—bike patrols and beat cops—along with greater coordination with Town Watch and other neighborhood groups. We have to fix the broken windows within 24 hours, keep used needles out of our public spaces, and re-establish our parks and playgrounds for our kids and families.
Joe supports getting Pennsylvania to sue Big Pharma manufacturers and distributors to pay to mitigate the crisis they started.
Without adequate funding there cannot be a lasting resolution. Joe supports the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s efforts to go after one of the main sources of the problem, Big Pharma manufacturers. He will support the already-pending lawsuit by Philadelphia and other counties against these companies and advocate for the Commonwealth to join in. In addition, Joe supports legal action against the three major prescription opioid distributors contributing to the opioid epidemic: McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. These companies have repeatedly violated laws designed to prevent illegal opioid sales and overprescribing to bolster their bottom lines.
Ideally, the worst perpetrators in the pharmaceutical industry should be held culpable and be forced to provide a good bulk of the cost for expanded recovery programs. However, this is easier said than done. In the case of the infamous Sackler Family of Purdue Pharma who flooded the nation with OxyContin, immunity deals may rob the community of any such compensation or justice. Time will tell, and until then Joe will continue to explore options to implement comprehensive solutions for the opioid crisis.
Joe served on the Pennsylvania Task Force on Warm Hand-offs to address access to, and utilization of, treatment options for those suffering from addiction.
The Task Force examined the very basic problem of how to handle an overdose event and what actions work best to divert affected individuals into treatment, rather than put them back on the streets. Joe believes the way forward is to improve access to long term in-person treatment and to strengthen accountability and structure for treatment options for people who stay in their homes. He also recognizes that a single treatment modality does not work for everyone and encourages flexibility that combines individual needs and community safety. The key is early intervention at the time of an overdose event to create an effective warm hand-off. You can read the Task Force’s December 2020 report here.
Joe supports insurance reforms to get people the kind of treatment that will get them into true long term recovery and off the streets.
People suffering from addiction require treatment that gives them the best opportunity to get their lives back and become active members of our society again. Joe believes the answer is in long term treatment, focusing on traditional behavioral and 12-step programs that have a proven track record. Medically Assisted Treatment can be an option, but we have to take steps to avoid the problems of switching one addiction (heroin) for another (methadone). The answer lies in providing treatment for longer than 15-30 days. Medicaid and private insurers need to provide a full range of treatment and not simply shuttle someone out after 30 days with no accompanying support. Joe will support requirements for long term treatment options, especially the establishment of in-patient programs as the standard of care, along with the provision of transitional housing. These changes will serve the double purpose of giving the person in addiction a greater chance of success and our neighborhoods more security by having fewer people living on the street.
True recovery from addiction begins with a personal decision to change. Joe believes we have to provide every person suffering from addiction the opportunity to make the best choices on their own personal road to recovery. At the same time, we need to reduce property damage, exposure, and personal injury for everyone in the community. Parts of the 177th are struggling and we need to lend our families and neighbors all the help humanly possible. The future of our city and neighborhoods requires leadership, vision, and dedication to put together the funding and policies that will provide lasting solutions. Joe is ready to do whatever it takes to provide the neighborhoods what they need.