EDITORIAL: Laurels & lances: Drugs, tests and promises

Sep. 24—Laurel: To addressing addiction. On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department announced a new campaign to address drug use and recovery in Westmoreland and eastern Allegheny counties.

The program is a $75,000 effort to connect people who need help with services already being provided in the community, as well as information and videos, all through the PressPlayPA.com website.

It is an important effort because while the opioid epidemic has taken a back seat to covid-19 for the last 18 months, it hasn't disappeared. In fact, the number of drug deaths had been shrinking due in part to the expansion of naloxone availability as a front-line treatment for a narcotic overdose. That changed in 2020, with Westmoreland County deaths up 7% and Allegheny County's numbers jumping an alarming 22%.

It's not a solution to the problem because there is no single solution. But much like the naloxone, it is an effort and every step taken can help save a life.

Lance: To failing grades. As of Tuesday, 117 students at Penn State's flagship University Park campus had been placed on interim suspension. The action was taken not because they were performing badly on tests but because the were refusing to take them.

The tests in this instance are the covid-19 tests required weekly for students and staff who have either not been vaccinated or who haven't supplied proof of vaccination with the university.

No information was provided about suspensions at any of Penn State's 19 Commonwealth Campuses like Greater Allegheny, New Kensington or Fayette, which represent about 40% of the undergraduate enrollment.

The university's policy is both too restrictive for some masking and vaccine opponents and too lax for adherents who would like a broader mandate. The problem with these student actions is that it attacks a compromise. Penn State has an alternative for those who don't want to vaccinate and this failure is testing the response.

Laurel: To a promise kept. People who live in Pittsburgh'sHill District have gotten used to promises being made and later broken when it comes to things like redevelopment and progress.

When the Civic Arena was built in 1961, it rested on the bones of many homes demolished for the construction. Housing assistance and economic development was supposed to come. It didn't. When the arena was shuttered in 2010, it renewed old wounds, especially with new promises.

But on Monday, the announcement was made that $7.1 million had been placed in the Greater Hill District Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund, adminstered by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, to make grants for neighborhood projects.

Site developer Buccini Pollin Group advanced the payments, which translate to 10 years of city, school district and county real estate tax abatements.

The struggle for rebuilding of the site, where FNB Corp. recently broke ground for its $220 million tower headquarters as an anchor, has largely been a tug-of-war between the potential for the property and the history of distrust the residents have developed. Let's see what the value of a kept promise is going forward.

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