HARRISBURG Pa. (Reuters) - Young people in rural Pennsylvania can buy heroin more easily than a bottle of wine and getting high with the opiate can be cheaper than buying a six pack of beer, according to an investigative report released on Tuesday. 
 
 Overdose deaths have climbed steadily since 1990, when drug deaths in rural areas of the state were at one per 100,000 population. As of 2011, that figure stood at 13 deaths per 100,000, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania said in the report. 
 
 "Heroin is cheaper and easier for young people to obtain than alcohol,” said State Senator Gene Yaw, the Republican chairman of the center, a joint legislative state agency. 
 
 Pennsylvania is not alone in its heroin problem. In rural Vermont, Governor Peter Shumlin said his state was experiencing a "full-blown heroin crisis," while the overdose rate in New York City has surged as well, especially in the wealthiest neighborhoods. 
 
 In Pennsylvania, Yaw said a small packet of heroin costs between $5 and $10 and delivers a high lasting four to five hours. 
 
 The report, based on evidence submitted in hearings across the state this summer, listed Cambria County in central Pennsylvania as having the highest overdose death rate outside of Philadelphia, 22.6 deaths per 100,000 population. That is equal to Philadelphia’s drug death rate, the report said. 
 
 Yaw suggested Cambria County’s drug death rate was not caused by any special factors, but state Representative Bryan Barbin, a Democrat, was not so sure. 
 
 Barbin said Johnstown is easily accessible from heroin distribution centers like Baltimore. Dealing heroin is an attractive career option for those with few economic prospects, he said, especially those with drug crime records. 
 
 The report called for a number of legislative actions, including making it easier to prosecute dealers whose customers die of overdoses, and a "Good Samaritan" law assuring that people who seek help for overdose victims will not face criminal charges. 
 
 Putting more addicts in jail will not solve the problem, the report said. 
 
 State Representative Richard Marabito, a Democrat, said Pennsylvania has about 760,000 residents with addiction problems, but that only about 52,000 are receiving treatment. Only one in eight addicts can be helped with existing state resources, the report said. 
 
 (Writing By Frank McGurty) ||||| Heroin is cheaper and easier to get than beer in Pennsylvania, and the people selling it use sophisticated methods on par with the biggest retailers. 
 
 Those are among the conclusions of a state agency which complied a report and recommendations based on a series of informational hearings held around the state this summer. 
 
 Heroin addiction was long associated with inner cities. 
 
 But the Center for Rural Pennsylvania concluded there is a current "epidemic" that crosses all geographic, economic and racial boundaries, with scores of people becoming addicted and dying in suburban and rural communities. All parts of the state, including its most rural counties, are affected. 
 
 The center's report, called "Heroin: Combating this Growing Epidemic in Pennsylvania," says 80 percent of people using heroin first became addicted to a prescription opioid painkiller such as OxyContin or Vicodin. It said nearly 3,000 Pennsylvania residents have died over the past five years because of abuse of heroin or other opioids. A packet of heroin capable of producing a high lasting about five hours costs $10 or less, said a speaker at an event held to release the report on Tuesday morning. 
 
 State Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York County, who spoke at the event, said York County has been hard hit by the epidemic, with 31 confirmed and six suspected heroin overdose deaths so far this year, up from 17 in all of 2013. 
 
 A group of legislators at the event cited the need for an aggressive and far-reaching effort to combat the problem. This must include local communities, churches, schools, police and state lawmakers. 
 
 The legislators called for immediate approval of several pending bills that would: create a statewide prescription drug database to flag people who might be addicted to prescription opioids or obtaining them for illegal uses; passing a "Good Samaritan law" to allow drug users to summon help for overdose victims without fear of arrest; and making nalaxone, which can reverse an overdose, available to people such as ambulance crews and possibly to families of addicts. 
 
 One lawmaker stressed we "cannot arrest our way out of the problem." 
 
 Another stressed that more intensive and effective treatment must be made available to addicts. He noted that someone who undergoes a 30-day treatment stay with no other supports is highly likely to quickly relapse. And while providing the necessary treatment will be expensive, it's far less expensive than keeping addicts in jail, the lawmaker said. 
 
 The report says 70 percent of people in jail in Pennsylvania have substance abuse problems. 
 
 Heroin and opioid addiction are being blamed for a wave of petty crimes as addicts steal in order to feed their addition. 
 
 State Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria County, said people who are addicted to heroin and other opioids don't want to be addicted, and need compassion and help. He said there must be a major effort within schools to educate young people about the dangers of opioids, and local communities must rise up against the problem. 
 
 "We want to get the dealers out of our neighborhoods and we want to heal the people who are addicted," he said. 
 
 Another lawmaker argued that much of the problem can be traced back to the decision, more than a decade ago, to permit drug makers to market directly to consumers. He said this created an idea, especially among young people who have grown up seeing the ads, that there is a prescription drug remedy for every type of physical pain or mental discomfort. He said that notion must be addressed and dispelled.
– Heroin addiction isn't just an urban problem in Pennsylvania, where a small packet of the drug is cheaper and easier for young people in rural areas to obtain than a six-pack of beer, a new report warns. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania's report found that an "epidemic" of heroin use is affecting all parts of the state, with rural Cambria County having an overdose death rate the same as Philadelphia's, reports Reuters. The center's chairman, state Sen. Gene Yaw, says a bag of the drug capable of producing a high lasting more than four hours can be bought for $5 to $10. The report found that nearly 3,000 people in the state have fatally overdosed on heroin or other opioids in the last five years, and most heroin addicts were first addicted to prescription painkillers. Lawmakers called for an aggressive and wide-ranging response to the crisis at an event yesterday where the report was released, PennLive notes. Speakers echoed the report's recommendations by calling for moves including a statewide prescription drug database, a "Good Samaritan" law to ensure people who seek help for overdose victims won't be prosecuted, and tougher penalties for dealers whose customers die of overdoses. But lawmakers also stressed that we "cannot arrest our way out of the problem" and called for compassion and improved treatment options for addicts.