Dad. candidates for attorney general on opioid use, rehabilitation and more

Pennsylvania’s next attorney general will set the tone for the Commonwealth’s approach to law enforcement, and one of their biggest tasks will be deciding how to deal with the ongoing opioid crisis.

Under the current government. Attorney General’s Office Josh Shapiro represented Pennsylvanians in multi-state settlements against pharmaceutical companies accused of driving the widespread use of opioids. And the agency works with federal and local authorities to catch street dealers, pharmacists and doctors who unlawfully distribute drugs.

But within that mandate, the attorney general has a lot of discretionary power.

Both major party candidates, Democrat Eugene DePasquale and Republican Dave Sunday, argue that harm reduction must be part of the commonwealth’s response to the opioid crisis and have focused on getting people who use drugs into treatment rather than jail.

DePasquale’s drug plan highlights the attorney general’s ability to make policy changes, such as how the state uses dollars for opioid settlements. Sunday, on the other hand, has emphasized the office’s role as a prosecutor and said he will take tough action against dealers.

According to CDC dataPennsylvania’s opioid death rate peaked in 2017, ranking third in the nation at 44.3 deaths per 100,000 people. It has since fallen to 14th in the country as of 2022, with 40.9 deaths per 100,000.

Still, the toll is high: More than 5,000 Pennsylvanians died from overdoses in 2022 (complete data is available for the most recent year), while synthetic drugs like fentanyl have made overdoses more deadly.

The next attorney general may also have to weigh in on future legal battles with drug manufacturers and distributors. In these cases, settlements can lead to states hundreds of millions of dollars public health and safety, and the Attorney General can play a key role in negotiating these settlements.

For example, Shapiro’s role in mediating a 2021 national settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three drug distributors was controversial; Provincial prosecutors have argued he should have pushed for more money.

What is Eugene DePasquale’s plan to tackle the opioid crisis?

In public comments, DePasquale has emphasized that firsthand experiences inform his approach to opioid addiction.

“I know what the consequences are for families. First, a person can lose his life. Second, someone can be locked up,” DePasquale said during an ABC 27 debate this month.

DePasquale’s father became addicted to opioids and similar drugs after being injured during the Vietnam War. That addiction led his father to start selling drugs, for which he served 10 years in prison, DePasquale said PennLive.

The former Auditor General has urged this harm reduction policysuch as the legalization of fentanyl test strips and continued government funding for free naloxone, which can help reverse overdoses.

DePasquale has also provided support legalization of recreational marijuanaarguing as Auditor General that it could help “prevent some people from becoming addicted to prescription painkillers and falling into the potentially deadly spiral of opioid addiction.”

He has also focused on the effectiveness of the state’s existing rehabilitation programs. As state auditor, DePasquale investigated drug rehabilitation centers that receive state dollars made several recommendations for improvement, including having the state collect more data to assess the outcomes of rehabilitation centers.

DePasquale campaign manager Carver Murphy said that as attorney general, DePasquale would “continue to fight for those goals to ensure that state dollars go to the programs that work and have high success rates.”

During the October debate, DePasquale also said he wants to ensure that the state’s share of settlement dollars with drug manufacturers and distributors goes toward helping people battling addiction.

“We need to use those dollars to make sure they get into drug rehabilitation programs that work,” DePasquale said.

Pennsylvania expects to receive at least $1 billion through these settlements. However, the attorney general’s office does not serve on the court-ordered administration who distributes the financing.

But while the AG cannot force the board into action, he can certainly use his influence, values, and experience to make recommendations to improve the programs it funds, as his work and life have shown him the types of programs that are not do. t,” Murphy said.

Murphy added that DePasquale also supports supervised injection sites, or locations where people addicted to drugs can consume them under medical observation. Research has found that access to such locations can reduce overdose deaths and transmission diseases such as HIV.

If attorney general And governorShapiro has opposed controlled injection sites. Murphy said DePasquale’s support comes from his personal experience with his father’s addiction.

“This helps them, their families and the greater community,” Murphy said.

What is Dave Sunday’s plan to tackle the opioid crisis?

Sunday often summarizes his approach to criminal justice with two concepts: responsibility and redemption.

“We fight every day to hold drug dealers accountable, to go after drug traffickers, to go after the dealers on the streets,” Sunday said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. “But at the same time, we do show redemption, and we show love to people in the grip of addiction.”

In an interview with Spotlight PA, Sunday cited the York County Heroin Task Force as an example of his track record in this area. Co-founder of Sunday when he was a deputy public prosecutorthe task force organized dozens of community meetings, provided local police with naloxone to reduce overdose deaths and expanded the number of treatment beds.

That task force has since become a separate public-private partnership known as the York Opioid Collaborativeincluding law enforcement agencies, public health organizations and community groups.

“This issue is related to mental health, it is related to reentry,” Sunday said. “These crime-causing problems are bigger than just drugs. It is associated with childhood trauma. It’s about mental health care.”

If he were to become the state’s top prosecutor, Sunday said he would replicate this work statewide. He wants to get more counties involved in the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative, which allows local prosecutors to refer people arrested for minor crimes directly to substance abuse treatment without prosecution.

So far, 29 provinces have worked with the Attorney General’s office to launch similar programs. York is not one of them, Sunday said, because the county’s diversion program preceded the attorney general’s and is “already sustainable.”

Sunday also said he wants to expand a York County program that partners with local health care system WellSpan to connect people who have been arrested with inpatient mental health care instead of putting them in jail. He added Sunday that he is already talking to UPMC about joining the program.

In his effort to hold people involved in drug trafficking and distribution accountable, Sunday has also made extensive use of a relatively new charge known as drug release resulting in deathor DDRD.

The misdemeanor charge can be filed against any person who “intentionally administers, delivers, delivers, gives, prescribes, sells or distributes” a controlled substance that is used by another person who dies as a result of using the substance, the state says. law. If the distributor is found guilty, he faces a prison sentence of up to 40 years.

According to data released by the state courts, York County has prosecuted 104 such charges since 2018 — Sunday’s first year as an elected district attorney. That ranks as the second-largest total of any province in the Commonwealth.

The charges could be controversial. Criminal justice reform advocates have warned that DDRD charges could reduce the likelihood of drug users asking for help during an overdose. Often, attorneys say, charges are filed against a friend, family member, caregiver or romantic partner of the person who suffered a fatal overdose, rather than a drug dealer.

York County has decreased its use of DDRD taxes in recent years. Sunday acknowledged the charges have critics, but added he has advocated for the state’s Good Samaritan law, which protects those who report overdoses.

“We are very careful about charging it, but we have used it to take out people who have literally killed two or three people at the same time,” Sunday said. “And so we think it’s appropriate because there needs to be accountability.”

A spokesman Sunday also said he opposes supervised injection sites.

90.5 WESA partners with Spotlight PA, a collaborative, reader-funded newsroom that produces accountability journalism across Pennsylvania. More at spotlightpa.org.