A new report by the Pennsylvania court system shows an increase in the number of people charged with drug delivery resulting in death since that became a criminal offense in 2019.
The report shows an increase of 16 percent in people charged with the crime from 2022 to 2023, while convictions for the offense fell by 59 percent.
Indiana County had one person charged with the crime from 2019 to 2022 and four charged last year. Monroe, Lancaster and York counties have had the highest increases by percentage since 2019, with Monroe at nine percent and Lancaster and York at eight percent. Crawford, Greene, and Snyder counties had the lowest percentage of increase, at .09 percent. Indiana County’s increase, with the four individuals charged last year, is .045 percent.
Since 2019, our neighboring counties have similar numbers of individuals charged with drug delivery resulting in death, with one exception. Armstrong has had eight cases, Cambria five, Clearfield seven, and Jefferson four (all last year). The largest and most populous of our neighboring counties, Westmoreland, has had 57 people charged with drug delivery resulting in death, but that includes 25 in 2019 and 16 in 2021. It had only three last year.
Across the commonwealth, arrests for the offense increased sixteen percent from 2022 to ’23, but convictions decreased by 59 percent. However, a number of those cases may still be in the court pipeline, so the true results of those arrests might not be known for several more years.
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