Covid-19 has caused isolation, loneliness, sickness, and death.

Addiction has caused isolation, loneliness, sickness, and death.

Both diseases have interplayed and enhanced each other. As a society, we all can do more to prevent and treat both Covid and addiction. 

Governor Wolf has extended the emergency opioid disaster declaration yet again. 

This declaration enables staff to communicate and utilize drug prevention and drug monitoring resources thru out the state.

Some of the tools that have been created are:

the “Life unites us” campaign tries to destigmatize the disease of addiction. 

The Department of Health created the Office of Drug Surveillance and misuse Prevention. This overseeing body has resulted in a 40% decrease in opioid prescriptions.  This department has also provided information to first responders so they can identify and respond to the opioid epidemic.  The pandemic which has caused unemployment and isolation has encouraged drug use as a poor coping skill. Deadly fentanyl overdoses have increased.

Fentanyl is a powerful and cheap synthetic opioid. Legally it is used after surgery or for severe pain. The illegal use is more predominant. It is mixed with other drugs. Even a very small amount can be fatal. Drug addicts who no longer get a kick out of their regular dosage of a drug try drugs laced with fentanyl. 

New drug users also unknowingly try drugs laced with fentanyl. Drug dealers lace heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and methamphetamine with it. Fentanyl can show up on blotter paper, eye drops and nasal sprays, and in counterfeit pills made to look like regular prescriptions. Legalizing testing strips to detect fentanyl is being proposed. (House Bill 1393). 

We need to be more supportive of people affected by addiction and try to destigmatize this disease.  Why can't the local pharmacy distribute methadone for maintenance or medical marijuana like any other drug treatment? This would make the statement that being addicted to drugs is a disease like any other. After all, we buy masks, get tested for Covid-19, and get vaccines at our local pharmacy. 

To help with drug addiction, Narcan (Naloxone) is available at most pharmacies without your doctor's prescription. It is a nasal spray that can usually revive a person who has overdosed. 

If you have a loved one who is addicted to drugs, then have Narcan in your medicine cabinet and if possible, fentanyl testing strips. 

Unlike Covid-19, we do not have a vaccine to prevent the disease of addiction.