Ed Mahon reported this story while participating in the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2024 Data Fellowship and received engagement mentoring and funding.
READING — People across Pennsylvania have big questions about the opioid crisis and settlements with drug companies — and we’re answering them.
Over the past several months, Spotlight PA has heard from families who have lost loved ones to overdoses, people in recovery, community leaders, advocates, and others. They’ve asked how to get involved, how communities of color have been affected, and how responses to the epidemic are evolving. These questions came in a variety of ways, including through an online form, at Spotlight PA’s information tables at the state Capitol, during a public forum in Berks County, and in one-on-one conversations with sources.
The answers below draw on our reporting and insights from experts, including Kathleen Strain of Partnership to End Addiction and Cathleen Palm of the Center for Children’s Justice. Have another question? Email emahon@spotlightpa.org or use our online form.
How can the community get involved and help?
Berks County resident Jessica Berry asked this through the online form. She later shared her personal experience with recovery as one of the community speakers at the April forum. Several other readers emphasized the importance of public input.
There are a variety of ways to get involved with opioid settlement issues and addiction ones more broadly. The best path for each individual will vary — and you might not agree with the positions and approaches of all the organizations listed below. But these are some places to start.
The PA Harm Reduction Network, one of the partners for the April forum, encourages people to sign up for its emails so they can “be part of the conversation, pool resources, and connect with others in the Harm Reduction space.” The organization also seeks health care professionals interested in collaborating on public health issues.
Carla Sofronski, executive director of the group, highlighted the importance of “grassroots advocacy.”
“We need to come together,” she said during the Berks County forum. “Our voice is a collective. And when we come together, it’s really powerful.”
Partnership to End Addiction, another event partner, offers resources for parents and families, including a helpline, online groups, and personalized messages. More information on connecting with a specialist is available on the organization’s website. You can also text CONNECT to 55753.
Spotlight PA has received perspectives and information from other groups while reporting on the opioid crisis, including: the Center for Children’s Justice, the Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association, Commonwealth Prevention Alliance, the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance, Community Education Group, Vital Strategies, and OpioidSettlementTracker.com.
Individuals looking to make their voices heard or find additional resources can also turn to county drug and alcohol offices, elected officials involved in settlement decisions, state agencies, and the statewide opioid trust responsible for reviewing local settlement decisions. In February, trust board members publicly approved a plan to hold a public listening session this year — a change from its past practices. A trust official told Spotlight PA the listening session is expected to take place following a public board meeting in August.
What role do race and ethnicity play in the opioid crisis?
This came up in both the online form responses and at the live event, and it’s an issue that’s evolved in recent years. Recent data show drug use is having a more severe impact on people of color compared to white people, at least when it comes to fatal overdoses.
A Stateline analysis from 2024 found that overdose deaths had fallen nationally among white people but continued to rise among people of color.
A National Institute on Drug Abuse post that same year noted that while provisional data from the CDC showed the largest decline in overall overdose deaths in decades, “for some groups, we continue to see only greater escalation of the overdose crisis.”
Preliminary data for Pennsylvania show overall drug overdose deaths have fallen in recent years. There were about 4,700 such deaths in the state in 2023, a nearly 9% decrease compared to the previous year.
The overdose death rate among Black Pennsylvanians increased over several years, with a slight decline in 2023, but it still remained about two-and-a-half times higher than the rate among the state’s white population, preliminary state data show. The overdose death rate among the Hispanic population also exceeded the rate among non-Hispanics that year, although by a smaller amount, state data show.
What have families experienced when seeking charges after fatal overdoses?
Across the state, prosecutors have pursued drug delivery resulting in death charges — cases in which someone is accused of illegally providing a substance that caused another person to die. A conviction on the charge can bring a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
More than 1,000 such offenses were filed over a recent five-year period, with more than 300 convictions during the same period, according to the state court system. (A single case can include multiple charges, and the offenses in the court system’s analysis included conspiracy and other related charges.)
In Harrisburg, some lawmakers are pushing for tougher penalties for certain defendants. State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) said in a memo that “dealers often cut deals for lenient sentencing and little to no jail time.” His bill that would create mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in certain cases passed the GOP-controlled state Senate with a 33-16 vote in April. It was awaiting action in the Democratic-controlled state House as of April 24. A similar bill stalled last session in that chamber.
Strain, of the Partnership to End Addiction, lost a family member to an overdose in 2018 and chose not to pursue criminal charges against the person who provided the drugs.
“I know the person that he got it from was also somebody that was using substances,” Strain, manager of advocacy and peer services for the organization, said during the Berks County forum. “So I … just was hopeful that they would find their way to recovery.”
She had been 27-year-old Thomas Strain’s guardian, raising him after his father died from a drug overdose in the 1990s, she told Spotlight PA. Thomas’ obituary described him as “a handsome young man with a kind heart that wanted to live” and someone who “loved his children and enjoyed their many adventures together.” In the obituary, the family asked that, in lieu of flowers, “you remember Thomas by helping to end the stigma of addiction.”
At the forum, Strain said deciding whether to pursue charges is a personal decision for families. She later told Spotlight PA “each grief journey is unique.”
How are people approaching the opioid epidemic differently now?
A lot has changed over the past 30 years, said Strain. She described her family’s experience with the crisis going back to the 1990s.
“When we had our first death, we would never publicly say that they died from a heroin overdose,” she told the audience at the forum in April. “The story was that they had an accident, and that’s what we stuck with.”
Now, she said, there are more resources — and more space for candid conversations.
“I know we still need a lot of resources, but we went from zero resources to being able to sit here and have a conversation and openly say this is happening,” she added.
Palm, founder of the Center for Children’s Justice, referenced the declines in overdose deaths in recent years. But she told Spotlight PA that deaths aren’t the only bad outcome: children could ingest drugs, be separated from a parent, witness a parent experience a nonlethal overdose, or suffer other types of harm.
“We need to bring the deaths down, and we need to tackle the other stuff that’s below that, as well,” she said during the forum.
Why did Spotlight PA decide to focus on this issue?
There are big hopes for this opioid settlement money, which has been estimated to bring about $2 billion to Pennsylvania over many years. But there are conflicts about the best way to use it and who should have a say in the choices.
