Taking a page from President Donald Trump’s playbook, Gov. Tom Wolf has signed a statewide disaster declaration to meet the growing opioid drug-overdose epidemic head-on.

It is high time that this scourge on some of our most vulnerable citizens is finally addressed from the highest levels of government, but we also encourage our leaders to put the necessary money where their mouths are.

In taking action, Pennsylvania joins six other states — Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia; more are expected to do the same later this year.

The action follows on the heels of a national declaration made by Trump last fall. In labeling the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency, Trump acknowledged that “nobody has seen anything like what is going on now.”

Trump also predicted, however, that this will be the generation that ends the opioid crisis. He stressed the need for greater enforcement, especially along our southern border with Mexico from where he said most of the illegal drugs, especially fentanyl, are coming.

Opioids are a varied class of potent painkillers, including brand names such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, but more potent fentanyl is synthesized to resemble other opiates such as opium-derived morphine and heroin.

Exploding in use from the early-1990s, the potency and availability of these substances, despite their high risk of creating overdoses and addiction, have made them popular both as legitimate medical treatments and as recreational drugs.

Due to the sedative effects on the part of the brain which regulates breathing, opioids in high doses can cause respiratory failure and death.

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50; two-thirds of these come from opioids.

In 2016, the last year for which figures are available, more than 64,000 Americans died from overdoses, a staggering 21 percent increase from the previous year. It was 4,000 in 1999.

Among the five counties in the Times News area, Schuylkill and Northampton are below the statewide average of 27.4 deaths per 100,000 population, according to figures released by the Pennsylvania State Coroners’ Association. Schuylkill recorded 16.6 deaths per 100,000 population, while Northampton’s rate was 23.6. The highest local rate is in Lehigh County, 31.9; followed by Carbon, 28.1, and Monroe, 27.6.

This epidemic has already sapped the United States of an estimated $550 billion in related costs. Last July, the Federal Drug Administration labeled drug addiction as its biggest crisis.

Most analysts believe that this crisis began with the overprescription of powerful opioid painkillers in the 1990s. As of 2016, more than 289 million prescriptions were written for opioid drugs.

Wolf’s declaration is intended to enhance state response, increase access to treatment and ultimately save lives. Statistics show that on average, 15 people die every day in Pennsylvania from drug overdoses. That is nearly 5,500 in a year, or about the population of Lehighton.

Normally, public health emergency declarations are reserved for significant natural disasters caused by floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. By adding opioid drug addiction to the list, state and federal officials are acknowledging that things have gotten out of control and must be addressed quickly and effectively.

“While we have made progress in combating the heroin and opioid abuse crisis and drastically expanded Pennsylvania’s response, we are still losing far too many Pennsylvanians,” Wolf said. “I am taking this step to protect Pennsylvanians from this looming public health crisis, and I am using every tool at my disposal to get those suffering from substance use disorders into treatment, save more lives and improve response coordination.”

Wolf and the team working with him named 13 initiatives that will be undertaken to try to stem the death, injury and devastation to individuals and their families.

He urged agencies to think innovatively in coming up with solutions. Wolf promised to use his authority to waive legal regulations that set up barriers to treatment and impede first responders from doing their job.

One of the key initiatives Wolf will undertake is to expand access to the prescription drug monitoring program. This will help medical professionals know the background drug use of patients before prescribing medications, especially painkilling opioids.

Another is to broaden the use of naloxone, which serves as a lifesaving antidote to an opioid drug overdose.

States have also enacted laws to encourage people who witness overdoses to summon emergency responders without fear of legal entanglements. Forty states and the District of Columbia have enacted these good Samaritan or 911 drug immunity laws to protect medical professionals and pharmacists who prescribe or dispense naloxone, or people who administer or receive it, from criminal or civil liability.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com