HARRISBURG — Faced with a persistent opioid epidemic, officials in Western Pennsylvania have asked federal authorities to designate Allegheny, Beaver and Washington counties as a high intensity drug trafficking area.
The designation, if approved by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, could free up additional funding to pay overtime for officers, make drug buys during investigations or purchase new equipment as officials attempt to clamp down on opioid sales and overdoses throughout the region.
The request comes at a time when heroin and other opioid overdoses are stretching the resources of local and state officials. According to state statistics, officials this year have logged at least 833 emergency room visits for suspected opioid overdoses in Allegheny County, 76 in Washington County and 26 in Beaver County.
“This is something our office has been working on for a while and identified as a priority,” U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said in an interview Monday. “We thought that right now, at this moment in time, given what we’re seeing in Allegheny County and some of our outlying counties with not only opioids generally, but specifically with fentanyl, that this was the time to seek a HIDTA application.”
Brady’s office recently submitted the application and a slew of public officials, including the district attorneys from each of the three counties, have sent letters supporting the effort.
Among the officials calling for the HIDTA designation is Gov. Tom Wolf, who in a letter dated Monday, told James Carroll, the acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, that officials in the state have banned together with the resources they have. “We have made real progress,” he said, “but more can be done.”
Federal authorities currently recognize 28 regional high-intensity drug trafficking areas, with another one in Alaska in the works, meaning that soon all 50 states will have one. Philadelphia and Camden N.J. currently have the designation as well. It was not immediately clear when the Office of Drug Control Policy would decide whether to grant the HIDTA designation to the counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. The office reviews the requests on a rolling basis.
First Published: July 30, 2018, 9:48 p.m.