Rep. Charlie Dent (PA-15) hosted a community drug forum on Wednesday, March 11 at Kutztown Area High School.
He recognized State Senator Judy Schwank for getting the conversation started on local drug concerns, and State Representative Ryan Mackenzie for attending the forum. Schwank could not attend the Kutztown forum because she was at a town hall meeting on industrial hemp and medical cannabis at Lebanon Valley College,
Dent opened by referencing the problem of prescription drugs and heroin use, which much of the following discussions would focus on, “This is a problem that cannot be ignored any longer.”
Kutztown Superintendent Kathy Metrick later said that her district and the Brandywine Heights School District lost five recent graduates to drugs. With the main problem being heroin overdoses, the district got a strong response from a community call to action and contributed to planning to forum.
“We really had a great opportunity, sadly, to do something,” she said, referring to the district’s response to the graduates’ drug-related deaths.
Dent considers the growing abundance of these drugs a problem not just for Eastern Berks but for the nation and told the audience, “We need to take [the problem] head on.”
He said that Berks had 26 heroin-related deaths in 2014, up three from 2013 and 25 prescription drug-related deaths.
“The availability of these drugs makes them especially attractive to those who may be abusing them,” Dent said.
The forum progressed with two panel discussions, one consisting of law enforcement professionals and the other medical professionals.
The first panel consisted of two officials from the Philadelphia division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Laura A. Hendrick and Minh T. Nguyen, State Trooper David Beohm, Detective Pasquale Leporace from the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Bethany Zampogna from Lehigh County.
Hendrick, a DEA field intelligence manager, opened by saying that Pennsylvania is a “go-to” state for pill-seeking abusers.” She also noted that heroin may be a cheap alternative to pills and is “readily available” to people in Pennsylvania.
Her colleague Nguyen is a supervisory special agent who oversees a task force that combats criminal diversion of prescription drugs. Teens could get these drugs from friends, medicine cabinets, the Internet or street dealers. Nguyen stressed that while the DEA can take care of street dealers, the community can help prevent teens from obtaining drugs through the other three methods.
Beohm said that with Eastern Berks being an area that state police covers, “[state police are] going to keep working hard to stem the tide of what’s going on.”
Leporace, whose specific duty is to enforce drug laws, has seen the black market shift, recently seeing “streets flooded with cheap heroin.” He said that although it is cheap heroin, coming from Mexican cartels, it still has high potency. The recent trend of methamphetamine spreading to the area concerns Leporace as well.
“The past couple months mimics what we’ve seen with heroin,” he said.
As for prescription drugs, medication boxes to discard unneeded medication were set up in locations all over the county in 2013 and have collected 600 pounds since.
The second panel consisted of Dr. Alex Rosenau of Lehigh Valley Health Network, Dr. William Santoro of Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Cory Trevena of Caron Treatment Centers and Matthew Null of the Council on Chemical Abuse.
Rosenau showed a slideshow of facts and statistics, highlighting that 2008 showed deaths from drug poisoning came close to deaths from motor vehicles.
He mentioned that he worked with Dent on another emerging drug trend, bath salts. Concerned that these drugs, made of different chemical mixtures, could sell at places like gas stations, he called Dent for help. The congressman immediately responded by getting together with other representatives. 16 months later, he sponsored a synthetic drug control bill that got incorporated into a 2012 Food and Drug Administration Act.
“I have not seen a bath salt victim in my unit [a month] after it passed,” said Rosenau.
Kutztown High School nurse Brenda Loeb turned the conversation to legalization of marijuana, having concerns of children going from cigarettes to alcohol to marijuana to pills and other more serious drugs. She asked for the panel’s feelings on marijuana in the state and nationwide.
Santoro acknowledged that Loeb was correct in identifying tobacco, not marijuana as the gateway drug.
He said, “I firmly believe that [marijuana] should be used in the medical field,” but worries about people with the notion of doctors becoming their drug dealers or the drug’s effects on the brain. He cites a higher level of emergency room visits from marijuana overdose in Colorado in the state’s first year of the drug’s legalization, concluding that other states could see the same effect.
Rosenau said that he does not know if medical marijuana has value, but it can be studied and therefore may have value someday.
Although the conversation shifted back toward the local heroin and prescription drug issues, Dent ended the session on the subject of marijuana legislation, “I have resisted legalizing [marijuana] because there just doesn’t seem to be enough evidence.”
He says that as a politician, he does not have expertise on the drug, but he would like to see data from groups like the FDA and medical community.
Dent said that this was his first time hosting a forum on this matter. He remembers discussions of planning it emerged nearly a year ago after learning of recent tragedies in Eastern Berks County.
“The community has responded very well,” said Dent in reference to the tragedies. “Our goal today was to raise graver awareness.”
He specifically addressed concerned parents that attended. “Hopefully this forum provided for them some avenue where they can seek assistance or guidance,” he said, hoping this prevents future tragedies in Eastern Berks.
Kutztown mother Kelly Miller attended the forum to learn more and be more proactive regarding drug education with her children.
“I think it’s [helping] everyone become more aware and come together,” she said.
Kutztown Mayor Sandy Green said at this time last year, the communities affected by the heroin overdoses “didn’t know what to do.” This year is a big improvement, according to Green, and the community has come together and learned a lot from community meetings, especially the forum.
