Inquirer Editorial: Heroin has found a home in the 'burbs

An alarming increase in drug-overdose deaths is finally putting more focus where it's needed - on suburban and rural communities once considered immune from addiction problems more typically associated with America's inner-city neighborhoods.

Pennsylvania, which ranks first in the nation in drug deaths among young men and third overall nationally, has become a battleground. University of Pittsburgh researchers say overdose deaths in the state increased 14-fold between 1979 and 2014. That's more than double the national rate of increase.

The study indicated that white women have been particularly susceptible, with their overdose deaths statewide jumping from only 34 in 1979 to 719 in 2014. In Philadelphia, overdose deaths among white women during that period rose from 17 to 480.

Such numbers illustrate the importance of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which the U.S. Senate passed earlier this month. The bill would commit $725 million over the next five years to train first responders to handle overdoses and create more drug treatment programs.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) would help prevent Medicare enrollees from doctor hopping to get addictive drugs. But Toomey wouldn't support an effort to add $600 million to CARA's funding. That's unfortunate given the assessment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that heroin and opioid overdoses now kill more people than car accidents.

Opioid addictions often start when a doctor prescribes a painkiller for a backache or recovery from a minor surgical procedure. Last week, the CDC heeded the call to issue opioid prescribing guidelines. In a recent Inquirer commentary, former Gov. Ed Rendell criticized pharmaceutical companies for aggressive marketing campaigns that play a role in physicians' overprescribing opioids.

About 5 percent of patients become addicted to the painkillers, studies show. Withdrawal sickness may kick in when their prescriptions run out, so they move on to heroin, which is cheaper, can be bought on the street, and, in cities like Philadelphia, is often of much higher quality.

Many heroin shoppers take what they bought in the city back home to the suburbs to get high - and too often to die. One suburb trying to prevent overdose deaths is Upper Darby, which has started a program that invites drug addicts to go to the police station without fear of arrest to get connected with treatment programs.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania hopes its new prescription monitoring system will be operational by late summer. That's good news. Pharmacies and physicians will be required to identify every patient who has been prescribed and purchased addictive drugs. That will provide a database that can be used to help determine which patients may be addicts.