HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) - The opioid epidemic peaked in 2017 and has since evolved into an overdose epidemic, officials say. Advocates believe handling overdoses is the first piece to solving the crisis but enforcement plays a critical role as well.

“Anytime we have a fatal overdose, [investigators] are going to try to trace back where the drugs came from,” Pennsylvania State Police Communications Office Director Lt. Adam Reed told CBS 21 News’ Samantha York.

Newly released PA Courts data shows over 1,000 drug delivery resulting in death (DDRD) offenses have been filed across the commonwealth in the last five years. In Pennsylvania, a DDRD felony charge is issued to a person who intentionally delivers drugs when another person dies as a result of using that substance.

“A lot of these drug-related investigations are very complex and they take a lot of time,” Lt. Reed explained.

The PA Courts data covers charges filed against drug dealers in Pennsylvania in the last five years. In 2018, the most filed offenses are seen. They then took a dip in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, only to jump back up to near pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

“Our investigators do everything they can, use every tool at their disposal, to get to the bottom of these crimes,” Lt. Reed continued.

Lancaster City has been cracking down, too, filing 132 DDRD offenses in the last five years which makes up 10% of the total offenses across the state in that time.

“We are very aggressive in prosecuting drug dealers,” Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons said.

A former prosecutor, himself, Commissioner Parsons is co-chair of Joining Forces, a county-wide effort to address overdose numbers.

“A lot of times you have drug dealers who know what they’re doing, they’ve done it before,” he explained. “They know this is very dangerous and they should be held accountable.”

Accountability is what Laura Shanafelter’s been pushing for. Her 18-year-old son, Tyler, died in 2020 of an overdose traced back to fentanyl.

“It’s an indescribable pain,” she said.

She’s since fought for harsher punishment. Under the current law, dealers are sentenced to up to 40 years in prison for the crime but many get out in as little as a year or two.

“That’s a ridiculous sentence for somebody who actually took someone’s life via poison,” Shanafelter said. “That is a slap in the parents’ face.”

The proposed Tyler’s Law gained some traction this year, calling for a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for anyone convicted of fentanyl distribution connected to an overdose death.

“Maybe I could take my grief and try to turn it around into something positive,” Shanafelter explained.

5,400 Pennsylvanians fatally overdosed in 2021. Many advocates agree that enforcement is one answer to solving the crisis.

“It’s a really sad thing,” Commissioner Parsons said. “You can have a young person who even uses drugs once and doesn’t know there’s fentanyl in it and ends up dead.”

“If love to save them, they’d all still be here,” Shanafelter added.

Tyler’s Law made it to the Judiciary Committee in 2022 but didn’t get passed. Shanafelter intends to keep pushing to make a change so her son’s name lives on and helps other families in the process.