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WILKES-BARRE — A comprehensive story done by NBCNews.com talks about “the deadly math in Wilkes-Barre,” punctuated with this: “That death rate is four times higher than New York City.”
The NBC report talks about the 139 fatal drug overdoses in Luzerne County in 2016, as reported in a Times Leader story earlier this month — noting that more half of them were the result of heroin laced with fentanyl — in a county of just 318,000 people.
“I recently went to Luzerne County Council and reported that we are getting almost three overdose deaths per week — more than 10 per month,” Luzerne County Coroner William Lisman said. “We’ve had some weekends with four and five of these deaths.
“Yes, it’s very frustrating. I wish I had the answers. I can’t explain it.”
Lisman told NBC that 20 years ago, Luzerne County might have had 12 drug-related deaths, compared to the 139 in 2016.
Lisman said most of the victims come from good families — families where the parents are hard working and attentive to the children’s needs.
“These are good people who are struggling to get through life,” Lisman said, “They send their kids to college, they help them with their homework, and the next thing you know, alcohol and drugs come into their lives. As a lucky father of four, I can really feel for these families.”
Lisman said the opioid crisis is not a problem that can be resolved solely through law enforcement.
“We’re not going to police ourselves out of this,” Lisman said. “This is more of a social statement. We have to change people’s minds about drugs. Until we change that, I don’t see this coming to an end.”
Lisman said he knows that law enforcement is doing its job to combat the situation.
Lisman noted that the opioid crisis is not particular to Luzerne County. He said he has talked with coroners in other Pennsylvania counties, and they all report that they are seeing the same trend.
“It’s everywhere,” Lisman said. “It’s unbelievable the stuff that is going on. It’s happening all over.”
Lisman said the cost of the drugs has become cheap, making it accessible and inexpensive.
“It’s inexpensive until it costs someone their life,” he said.
Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said law enforcement’s role has been more reactionary when it comes to drug overdoses. She said her office is taking a hard look at ways to become more proactive, especially in prevention and training programs.
Salavantis noted that the county has taken over the Drug Task Force, which is focused on trying to prevent drugs from being sold on the streets. She said there are “many more boots on the street” who are more aggressively watching for drug activity. She said her office is also looking at ways to charge the people who are found responsible for supplying the drugs.
“My office is also looking at ways to educate our youth,” Salavantis said.
According to the NBC report:
Titled “Wilkes-Barre Faces Heroin Scourge Turning It Into ‘the Most Unhappy Place in America,’ the NBC report refers to the opioid crisis in Luzerne County as “the coming plague.”
The story notes that Lisman called the Times Leader last May and sounded the alarm about the crisis he was seeing.
“Age wise, we are across the spectrum, from 20s to the 70s,” Lisman told NBC. “We see everyone from the guy in the flophouse to the hard-working guys or gals who find relief in drugs.”
Lisman told NBC that a big part of the reason Wilkes-Barre is grappling with a drug problem is because this city of 41,000 is just a two-hour drive from Philadelphia and from New York City. Interstates 80 and 81 converge just south of the city.
• A packet of heroin that sells for $5 in the Bronx can fetch double that in Wilkes-Barre, Lisman said. And if it’s cut with fentanyl, the profit quadruples along with the danger to the users.
• “Heroin definitely has its hold on this area,” said Cathy Ryzner, a certified recovery specialist at the Wyoming Valley Alcohol & Drug Services in Wilkes-Barre. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Every time you look in the newspaper and you see somebody died young and at home, you know. You know.”
• Cathy Ryzner, a certified recovery specialist at Wyoming Valley Alcohol & Drug Services, said the people she sees are dealing with a host of demons beyond the economic, everything from sexual abuse and broken homes to being raised in households where drinking and drug-taking runs rampant. She’s seen people who get hooked on prescription drugs and make the move to heroin. Drugs like heroin, she said, “makes all your problems melt away. It masks any kind of hurt, any kind of feeling. … after three days of doing opiates you are addicted. You don’t even know you’re getting caught up.”
• What’s happening now in Wilkes-Barre is not new. Heroin use has been on the rise across the country since 2002, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
• Grieving dad Christopher Emmett said drugs have got a death grip on his community. He said his doomed son started smoking pot at age 13 and quickly graduated to harder drugs. He said Christopher Jr. was in and out of rehab — and so were most of his friends. “It is really an epidemic,” Emmett said. “We went to 14 funerals of my son’s friends who died of addiction in just one year. They’re dropping like flies, every day.” Emmett’s wife, Patricia, burst into tears at the thought of spending Christmas without her son. And as she cried, her boy’s ashes sat in an urn on a shelf in the living room. “There ain’t no Christmas,” she said, bitterly.
State health officials discuss opioid abuse
In recognition of Teen Health Week, Pennsylvania Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine and Deputy Secretary for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Dr. Loren Robinson Monday joined local students and medical experts in the Capitol Rotunda to discuss how teens across the commonwealth can improve their health.
“Talking and being open to young people about relationships, diet, exercise, self-harm, substance use, and violence is the first step in curbing or stopping destructive behaviors,” said Dr. Robinson. “It is important to de-stigmatize issues such as the opioid epidemic to these students and help them understand that they are not alone and there is no shame in getting help.”
