MILFORD, PA — The Pike County Alliance for Prevention Programs (PCAPP) recently presented checks to the Delaware Valley and Wallenpaupack Area school districts totaling $9,500 to support each school’s Strengthening Families Program (SFP).

The donation was announced on October 4 before the Pike County Commissioners, who have been strong supporters of intervention against the opioid-heroin epidemic and who recently presented their own new anti-drug initiative.

Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is an evidence-based seven-week program for parents and children to attend together. Families learn to conduct problem-solving techniques, teach resistance skills, improve parental management skills, increase parent-child bonding, enhance family communication skills and improve parent-school involvement.

PCAPP emphasizes drug prevention, in particular with the Reality Tour Drug Prevention Program, which is conducted four times a year by PCAPP.

Commissioners Chair Matt Osterberg in September announced that Pike has executed an agreement between two law firms to determine the feasibility of bringing a legal action against the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of prescription opiates for damages to Pike and its residents.

Osterberg has repeatedly charged the drug manufacturers with complicity in what is going on in the community when it comes to the opiate epidemic. He has been talking to the other commissioners and to Harrisburg on how Pike can hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible for creating this mess.

He said the drug companies have falsely characterized opioids as non-addictive and pressed for federal studies to rate hospitals on their provision of patients’ pain relief, thus stimulating wider use of these drugs.

Speaking on September 20, Osterberg said, “They need to be held, as the tobacco industry has been held [in the case of] cigarette smoking, to help cover the costs to the communities… [We] owe it to the residents that are suffering through this, that we hold the right people responsible. Not 100%, but [the drug companies] have to realize that there is some culpability on their part.”

Commissioner Steve Guccini said that the agreement with the two law firms is on a contingency basis, so if the county gets money, the firms get money, so there is no cost to the county.

The public needs “to keep an eye on what the federal and state governments are doing.” Saying the only answer is long-term treatment for those addicted, Guccini said, “Regardless of how you feel about national health insurance or any of those things, if we are not going to fund treatment, people are going to continue to suffer.”

PCAPP is committed to providing education, resources and preventative tools to any prevention initiative that benefits the citizens of Pike and Wayne counties. Alliance funding was made possible by Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards and Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin, as well as grant funding from the Greater Pike Community Foundation (GPCF) and Wayne Memorial Health Foundation (WMHF). If not for the support of these foundation and individuals, PCAPP would not be able to help its prevention efforts in Pike County.

This year the Reality Tour will be presented on October 19 and November 16. Contact Jill Gamboni at 570/390-9102 for more information.