PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia officials are still taking stock of what impact the end of Pennsylvania's opioid disaster declaration will have on the city. However, they're hoping reforms made during the declaration will be permanent.
Gov. Tom Wolf declared the opioid epidemic a disaster in January 2018 after overdose deaths in the state and the city hit all-time highs.
He tried to extend the declaration, but in May, voters gave the Republican-controlled state legislature the power to override his declarations, a measure aimed at COVID-19 restrictions. Legislators said they ended the opioid declaration last week because they thought it was no longer necessary.
Philadelphia's Deputy Behavioral Health Commissioner Roland Lamb said the declaration eased access to treatment and made the overdose reversal drug naloxone more widely available. It also set up a monitoring system for opioid prescriptions, which have been reduced by 40%.
"We're going to see if those can stay in place," he said of the reforms. "We hope that they will and that we're able to keep as many barriers out of the way of people getting treatment."
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During the first two years of the declaration, overdose deaths went down in Philadelphia and statewide, but they are back to near-2017 levels because of the spread of fentanyl in many classes of drugs. Lamb thinks the declaration should have stayed in place.
"I happen to believe that we're still in an epidemic, characterized by overdose," he said.
Lamb said the city has not seen an immediate impact from the end of the declaration, though he is surveying providers to make sure they haven't been affected.