Pitt presents Web resource to combat OD deaths

The University of Pittsburgh's School of Pharmacy revealed a website designed to provide communities, schools and others with resources to deal with increasing numbers of drug overdose deaths.

OverdoseFreePA provides real-time statistics on deaths, along with information on finding treatment for addiction.

The website is a collaboration among Pitt, the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs and six counties, including Allegheny, Butler and Westmoreland.

Heroin, according to the website, is present in 60 percent of all drug overdose deaths in Allegheny County, compared with 26 percent in 2004.

“The new website could help show Pennsylvanians the true effect of overdoses within their community and provides resources for increasing public awareness of the overdose risk and strategies for reducing this risk,” said Dr. Janice Pringle, an associate professor and director of the school's Program Evaluation and Research Unit.

“These are deaths that didn't have to happen,” she said. “We can prevent them using compassionate approaches to addiction treatment and education.”

There are a number of efforts under way to combat addiction and to attempt to stem the death rate.

U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton formed a working group on addiction that will issue its report and recommendations after Labor Day. Allegheny County established an Overdose Prevention Coalition. Westmoreland County started a drug overdose task force last year that has been meeting to study the problem.

Pennsylvania has several groups studying different aspects of the problem in the state, and Gov. Tom Corbett last year set up a cabinet-level post of secretary of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

The website provides up-to-date statistics on deaths in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Butler, Bucks, Dauphin and Delaware counties. The data is broken down by year, age, gender, race and the amount of drugs found in a person's system.

In Allegheny County, the website allows a user to track the number of deaths in any community by ZIP code.

Federal, state and county officials say the prime source of addiction is the overprescribing of pain medication. When prescriptions are shut off, users turn to heroin, which is powerful and plentiful in Southwestern Pennsylvania, according to law enforcement officials.

Richard Gazarik is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-830-6292 or rgazarik@tribweb.com.