Casey campaign focuses on fentanyl crisis, slams McCormick for investing in narcotic producers

After a Thursday news conference focusing on U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s efforts to combat the state’s fentanyl crisis, we checked the statistics on overdose deaths in Pennsylvania.

Here’s what we found: In the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, drug overdoses killed more than 15,700 people in the commonwealth. That’s more than the combined populations of Duquesne, Turtle Creek and Vandergrift. Most overdose deaths, studies find, involve fentanyl.

Over the years, we’ve covered events in which families publicly display pictures of loved ones who’ve died from fentanyl overdoses. These events are heartbreaking, and the stories that families tell keep the issue from receding. Most disturbing are the stories of people cut down in their prime — fentanyl is the No. 1 cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45.

And yet the deaths continue, year after year. To call it a crisis seems an understatement.

Since it is an election year, Thursday’s event in Hazelwood stressed the contrast between Casey’s efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and the actions of his opponent in the Senate race, Republican David McCormick. 

The first two speakers — state Rep. Aerion Abney, D-Manchester, and Tim Leech, vice president of Pittsburgh Firefighters, IAFF Local No. 1 — cited Casey’s support for legislation aimed at curbing the importing of fentanyl. Casey backed the Fend off Fentanyl bill, which employs sanctions targeted at the fentanyl supply chain, including Mexican cartels and Chinese chemical producers. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law in April.

Earlier this year, Casey introduced the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act, which would beef up law enforcement and support staff at the U.S. border, where the bulk of fentanyl enters the country, and pay for technology capable of scanning vehicles and cargo for the drug.

In addition, Abney, whose district includes parts of Pittsburgh, pointed out Casey-introduced legislation aimed at eliminating the cost of opioid treatment for those on private insurance and Medicare.

“Look, we all know the fentanyl epidemic in Pennsylvania has had a devastating impact on many of the communities across this commonwealth, including a lot of the neighborhoods and communities that are in my district in the city of Pittsburgh,” Abney said. “I’m sure that many of us have our own unique experiences, our own unique understanding and stories of the terrible impacts that fentanyl overdoses have had on family, on friends and on loved ones who have lost their lives due to drug overdoses.”

The contrast is “stark and clear,” he said. “Dave McCormick puts profits over Pennsylvanians, while Sen. Casey is fighting on the side of our families.”

Leech’s union represents 700 city firefighters who deal with the fentanyl crisis on a regular basis. “What the epidemic has done to the communities in our commonwealth is nothing short of devastating,” he said. “We see it with our own eyes every day, out there on the street, answering emergency calls. We see how drug overdoses have ripped Pennsylvania families apart.”

Both Leech and Abney criticized McCormick for investments made by the hedge fund he managed. The Casey campaign shared a news story, published in the Pennsylvania-based news organization Keystone on July 9, reporting that federal tax forms show Bridgewater Associates hedge funds in 2021 held nearly $1.7 million in stock in China’s largest fentanyl producer. McCormick served as CEO of Bridgewater Associates at the time.

The fentanyl produced by that company eventually makes its way to Pennsylvania’s streets, the speakers said.

“While thousands of Pennsylvania families struggled with the loss of a loved one,” Leech said, McCormick’s “only concern was how to make even more profits.”

The Casey campaign timed the event with the release of a video ad pressing this same message.

Peggy Heidish, the day’s final speaker, told the story of her son Zack, who died last summer. 

“People didn’t realize Zack was suffering from addiction,” she said. “He had a very responsible job for 10 years with UPMC. He dealt with a lot of tough situations, and he gave a lot of support to patients and staff.”

Zack fought the addiction, she said, and entered an inpatient recovery program. After two months, he returned home, excited to resume his life and work.

“My husband and I had so much hope,” Heidish said. “But for some reason — and I have learned that this is not unusual — Zack could not resist the urge to use again, just one more time. A setback shouldn’t be fatal. But unfortunately what he used was full of fentanyl.”

Addiction strikes families of all social and economic levels, she said. No neighborhood or profession is immune. She described recovering from addiction as “a lifelong battle,” one made more difficult by drug traffickers.

“If we have the presence of this poison, this fentanyl,” Heidish said, “it makes that battle even harder for anyone to win. No one recovers if they’re dead.”