Dying to Get High

No, we’re not talking about North Philadelphia, and we’re not talking about downtown Pittsburgh either. We’re not even talking about the eerie parts of Erie, PA.

But anyone who reads newspapers or web news sites these days ought to be aware that drugs have no boundaries and no fences. City, suburb, and rural as well as young, middle-aged and old – all groups exhibit some level of drug addiction problems. Poor, middle-class and rich – down and out homeless and the wealthiest celebrities – it’s all around us. In a country where the majority of people live on a higher economic plane than most of the people in the rest of the world, despair and lack of purpose drive people to drugs for various reasons.

And unfortunately, even in small towns like McDonald, Pennsylvania, the Coroner says that death by overdose is rapidly increasing.

Tim Warco is the Coroner for Washington County, which may be closer to West Virginia and Ohio than it is to the city of Pittsburgh. In one week’s time in late September 2011 he responded to four drug overdose deaths. Four.

On Wednesday, September 7, 2011 he found a number of people who were having a heroin party, and one young woman was dead. Two had been found a few days earlier over in Canonsburg, and one had been found in Donora.

McDonald Borough police found hundreds – that’s hundreds! – of used heroin bags, needles, a syringe full of blood, another syringe full of heroin and a crack pipe inside the home where the party was. They collected over 500 packs of heroin and arrested two women from Pittsburgh and a man from Brownsville.

Tim Warco wanted this story to get around. He’s hoping that people will think about what they are doing and go for help. He said, "It's a terrible situation here in Washington County. But it's not just here. It's an epidemic throughout the state. Not sure what can be done about it. My major message to anyone doing heroin is be careful. Seek help immediately because you can die."

Just like these four people did.