The sign outside the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad building on New Falls Road in Levittown says it all.
“48 heroin overdoes in Levittown this year … 5 of them died.”
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The rescue squad that provides emergency medical care to portions of Bristol Township, Falls Township, Middletown, Lower Makefield and all of Tullytown wrote about the sign on Facebook Friday afternoon:
We want to take some time to shed light on a deadly epidemic. This picture represents the overdoses & overdose related deaths our providers have treated so far this year. The purpose, if we can save 1 life, 1 family from the perils of heroin and/or addiction we’ve done right. #HeroinInAmerica #LevittownPA #HeroinAddiction #HeroinRecovery
The rescue squad’s sign comes at a time when Bucks County authorities are reporting an increase in drug overdoes throughout Lower Bucks County.
“Heroin has a stranglehold on our communities,” Assistant District Attorney Matt Weintraub, who is the chief of prosecution, told a room full of local residents in 2014. “What we’re experiencing nowadays is the heroin epidemic encroaching on a lot of different peoples lives.”
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Overdoes or drug-related calls are an every day occurrence for local police and medics.
Police from Bristol Township to Penndel have made good use of life-saving anti-opioid overdose antidote Naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, since it was handed out to patrol officers in 2015. Just last week, Middletown police saved an overdosing man who was allegedly shooting up drugs in an SUV with his brother.
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State officials recently said Pennsylvania saw 2,500 overdose deaths in 2014, with 2015’s death toll only expected to be higher.
“The magnitude of the addiction and overdose death epidemic in this state is astounding — at least seven Pennsylvanians die every day from a drug overdose,” Lt. Gov. Stack recently told a room full of police officials from across the state.
As Weintraub has said in the past: “There are no old junkies. They turn into ex-junkies or dead junkies.”
