VENANGO CO., Pa. (EYT) – With the official “War on Drugs” approaching the half-century mark, local law enforcement agencies continue to face a number of challenges in the day-to-day battle against controlled substances in our communities.
President Nixon officially declared a “War on Drugs” in 1971, stating that drug abuse was “public enemy number one.”
According to a published article on history.com, President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973. The DEA was given 1,470 special agents and a budget of less than $75 million to tackle both drug use and smuggling in the United States. Today, the agency has nearly 5,000 agents and a budget of $2.03 billion.
After nearly 50 years, Americans still see drug addiction as a major problem in their local community — regardless of whether they live in an urban, a suburban, or a rural area. Last year President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency. He pledged federal resources to help combat the growing drug problem which directs federal agencies to provide more grant money to combat the epidemic. This step helps cut through regulatory red tape and gives states more flexibility in how they use federal funds to fight the problem.
The Washington Post reported that drug deaths in the United States involving fentanyl increased nearly 600 percent from 2014 to 2016.
In Pennsylvania, drug overdose deaths have increased faster than drug deaths in any other state, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem presents an additional strain to local law enforcement agencies already deeply embroiled in the war on drugs.
“We’ve seen overdoses, and that’s one thing that I’ve said to people who don’t think very highly of us: It’s hard because we’ve seen things you can’t unsee. We’ve seen the rawness of families going through losing someone to an overdose,” Commanding Officer Captain Daniel J. Hines of the Pennsylvania State Police Troop E told exploreVenango.com.
“It’s very raw, very emotional, those overdose deaths, and there’s a ripple effect. It affects the first responders, the communities, it doesn’t affect just the family.”
When most people think of overdoses, they most often think of those who are addicted, but in today’s war on drugs, even overdoses are more complicated than that.
“With the advent of fentanyl, it’s to the point now where you don’t have to intentionally consume a controlled substance to overdose,” noted Chief Kevin Anundson of the Franklin Police Department.