Acting-U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (center) announces federal and state law enforcement agencies joining together to form anti-opioid task force. Photo: P.J. D'Annunzio

District attorneys from several eastern Pennsylvania counties, along with federal authorities and the state attorney general, have formed a task force to combat the rising death toll attributed to opioid overdoses in the region.

The acting U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, Louis D. Lappen, announced on Thursday afternoon the creation of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Opioid Task Force. The organization is geared toward prosecuting pill mill doctors and drug pushers while offering the chance for addicts to get clean through rehab and diversionary programs.

The task force is made up of district attorneys offices from Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia counties in cooperation with Attorney General Josh Shapiro and regional federal law enforcement.

“We have to continue to fight this deadly crisis,” Lappen said at a press conference Thursday at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The task force will operate through intelligence sharing between federal and state authorities with information on regional drug distribution and updates on drug cartel activity and doctors and pharmacists who profit from opioid sales disseminated among agencies.

Philadelphia is known to attract opioid users from across the nation because it has the cheapest and purest heroin available, sometimes laced with the pain-killer Fentanyl to form a deadly cocktail. The Kensington section of the city is ground zero for heroin use and has seen so many overdoses that members of city government, including District Attorney Larry Krasner, have advocated for the opening safe injection sites for addicts.

Lappen said the task force was strongly opposed to the idea, calling it “oxymoronic” and an indication of “just how far we've fallen.”

“It sounds almost like a safe suicide site,” Lappen remarked.

Neither Krasner nor any representative of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office was present during the task force press conference. At the time, Krasner was blocks away, announcing his office had filed a consumer protection lawsuit against 10 different pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing opioids.

Pennsylvania doctors prescribe roughly 20 million opioid pills per year, accounting for both legal and illegal sales, according to Lappen. He also said that four out of five new heroin users in the area started out by abusing painkillers.

Lappen said that anyone found guilty of distributing prescription opioids or heroin that results in a death by overdose will receive a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

Other law enforcement officials who spoke included Shapiro and Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan.

Shapiro, who has joined with 41 attorneys general across the United States to investigate pharmaceutical companies' manufacturing and distribution of opioids, called the matter “a crisis of epic proportions.”

Hogan stood at the podium holding a pair of handcuffs. “These are for you,” he said, his comments directed toward drug dealers and doctors who push opioids to addicts.

He then produced a vial of Narcan, an antidote used for opioid overdoses, promised to save addicts and claimed, “We're going to bring you back from the point of death.”