More than 75 people were treated for a drug overdose, then released from Butler Memorial Hospital’s emergency department in 2022, and 51 were admitted, a spokesperson said.

An average of 55 people died from a drug overdose in Butler County during a recent three-year period, according to the state Department of Health.

About 75% of the 400 inmates at Butler County Prison are incarcerated for drug-related offenses, the warden said.

And there has been evidence of a recent increase in the number of Butler Area School District students illegally using products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) since the legalization of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, the superintendent said.

“We have seen climbing numbers of substance abuse across the board,” said Dr. C. Thomas Brophy, who is certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties as an addiction medicine physician and is medical director of the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center, which has two offices, one on Liberty Street and the other on Old Plank Road.

Brophy will be the keynote speaker at “Discover Recovery: A community dialogue on addiction treatment, a symposium” to be held from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, at Founders Hall on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township.

If You’re Going

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What: Discover Recovery: A community dialogue on addiction treatment, a symposium

When: 8:30 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 7

Where: Founders Hall on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township.

Admission: Free. Register at bc3.edu/discover-recovery

The symposium is free and open to the public. Register at bc3.edu/discover-recovery.

Brophy’s presentation will include information about medication-assisted treatment, and will be followed by guests asking questions of him and of panelists Brian White, superintendent, Butler Area School District; Joseph DeMore, warden, Butler County Prison; Patricia Pritchard, director of community employment development, BC3; and Alyssa Vorel, Cassandra Hoak and Crystal Irwin, Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center. Vorel and Hoak work in trauma-informed care and addiction, and Irwin, as a center of excellence recovery specialist.

The symposium is being sponsored by the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center in partnership with BC3’s Workforce Development division and “will bring together people who are truly collaborating and working hard to better our community as we, as a community, deal with addiction,” Lisa Campbell said.

Guests “can hear from our diverse panel about what is happening in their respective areas,” said Campbell, dean of BC3’s Workforce Development division. “We hope to engage with those who attend, to inform them, to educate them and to hear their feedback so we can all continue to work together.”

Drug overdose deaths in the United States have risen fivefold over the past two decades, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in December.

Sixty people died of drug overdoses in Butler County in 2019 and 72 in 2020, according to the state Department of Health.

The decrease in Butler County to 34 in 2021 may reflect a national practice of “putting more Narcan in the hands of first responders,” Brophy said of naloxone, described by the CDC as a lifesaving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids.

DeMore has been warden for eight years at Butler County Prison, where the majority of inmates are incarcerated because they are “on drugs, stealing to get drug money, being involved with drug dealers, things like that,” DeMore said.

The symposium is timely, DeMore said, “because of how bad addiction is with opioids in our area. Educating people is going to be important.”

DeMore may discuss prison efforts that include providing to inmates needed prescriptions, counseling and educational programs.

“If we are successful and one person gets out of jail, and is not on drugs anymore and can get their life back together, I think that is a success,” DeMore said.

White has been superintendent for nearly six years in the Butler Area School District.

“We have seen medically adverse reactions including vomiting, fainting and disorientation (as a result of nonprescribed drug use),” he said. “We’ve had to transport students to the hospital from school because of THC products this year. Last year we had a couple incidents, but it definitely picked up.”

Pennsylvania legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2016.

“From a school perspective, we are seeing an increase with youth using THC products, sometimes strictly THC, sometimes THC with other things,” White said. “It’s becoming more common as the accessibility is becoming easier to get the THC-based products.

“Sometimes the THC that finds its way into students’ hands … may include fentanyl. We all know the devastating effect that can have on any person, let alone a child. That is why it is important that we get ahead of this and address it right now.”

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.