Over the past year, Carbon and Monroe counties have seen plenty of attention focused on the area's drug problems, specifically the opioid epidemic.

Since more attention means more people strategizing on an effective way to combat overdoses and criminal activity, and focus upon treatment for those dealing with addiction, is the community on the way to resolving the issue?"Some progress has been made in the last year, but generally, no," STEP-Up's Todd Zimmerman said.Lehighton Police Chief Brian Biechy agreed, stressing that there was much more work to be done between police and treatment centers."I don't think we're any better than we were before," Biechy said. "We need to continue with law enforcement efforts and prosecution. I think it needs to be a good 50/50 split between treatment and prosecution."While many in the area are now aware that there is a problem, the very agencies that could set up a comprehensive game plan have a major roadblock - communication. Groups like STEP-Up are trying to bridge the gap between groups to share information and techniques, as well as to keep each other up to date on the issues."More people that have been affected by this epidemic need to get involved," Zimmerman said. "Also, different agencies need to communicate with each other better. Again, I wish the Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary clubs, etc. all sent representatives to STEP-Up Carbon so everyone is on the same page."Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission Executive Director Jamie Drake echoed the necessity of networking among law enforcement, the medical community, support groups and citizens."I believe we are actively working to improve this," Drake said. "And a key is to engage the whole community as it needs to be addressed from this perspective, as my agency alone cannot battle this huge problem."The CMPDA has had an eventful year - educating residents about drug abuse, distributing naloxone kits to combat overdoses, establishing a 24/7 hotline to increase availability and access to detox services for uninsured people, laying the groundwork for a program to provide recently released inmates from Monroe County Correctional Facility with the relapse-prevention treatment Vivitrol, and much more.In order to make further progress, the CMPDA will continue to work with the Opiate Task Forces - groups that encourage connections between residents, officials and agencies - and meet with area police chiefs to educate the departments on addiction and carrying naloxone for emergency situations."Our goal is to continue to pursue grant opportunities to increase funding to address this issue, work with the opiate task forces and other community groups to provide outreach and education on this topic, and engage family and community members further," Drake said.Aside from funding, addressing pharmaceutical abuse that could in turn lead to illegal drug use is of prime importance."We're focusing on doing everything we can to combat this," state Rep. Doyle Heffley said, indicating that representatives are preparing new legislation packages to address the issues. "The key is to stop what has been driving these addictions - the opioid-based painkillers. There is a need for them, but how liberally they've been prescribed is an issue."One of Heffley's proposed bills sought to enforce alternative non-opioid painkillers options for any policy that would cover opioid versions, yet the movement was struck down. Bills that focused on limiting emergency room and urgent care prescriptions for opioid painkillers to seven days, limiting prescriptions for minors, and encouraging education among patients, practicing physicians and medical students did pass.At the end of the day, Heffley's summary of government efforts to fight the scourge are easily applicable to every group working on the issue over the past year."We've gotten a lot of things in place. However, there's a lot to be done yet."