State Attorney General Josh Shapiro vowed to extend his anti-opioid campaign to doctors’ offices and pharmaceutical companies Tuesday, during a visit to the Altoona Mirror marking his first 100 days in office.

Shapiro detailed the office’s successes since he took over, boasting of better work with local law enforcement and drug sweeps that have struck scores of accused heroin dealers. But he stressed that only a broad plan — one including treatment and a harsher line against those who provide opioids — will achieve real success against the nationwide pill and heroin abuse crisis.

“We’re never going to win the battle if that’s where we’re stopping,” he said, referring to periodic drug sweeps. “We’ve got to take this battle to doctors’ offices.”

Shapiro described the practice, widely detailed in other states, of drug manufacturers flooding rural areas with far more opioid drugs than they would ordinarily need.

Officials in some hard-hit states like West Virginia have sued the companies, claiming they intentionally pumped the areas with drugs, ignoring the risk of addiction in the often poor communities.

While he did not say explicitly that Pennsylvania is pursuing an identical case, Shapiro made clear he is looking into the companies’ practices.

“I can’t get into some of the efforts we have ongoing, but I can tell you we’re very active in dealing with this issue,” he said. “I can tell you that we’re very actively pursuing justice and safety and security for people in Pennsylvania when it comes to what pharmaceutical companies are putting in our communities.”

Shapiro cited past campaigns against tobacco companies as a precedent for mass legal action against national industries. Pennsylvania officials have fought individual manufacturers before: Last year, then-attorney general Bruce Beemer joined a multistate lawsuit against the manufacturers of Suboxone, claiming the three companies worked together to raise prices for the opioid.

Between the manufacturers and customers, however, are doctors — some of whom, Shapiro said, write illegal or unnecessary prescriptions that leave patients addicted to opioids. And when prescription drugs become too expensive, many addicts turn to cheaper and more dangerous heroin.

Shapiro pointed to the recent arrest of a Westmoreland County doctor who allegedly sold prescription drugs that killed a 30-year-old woman. His office has sought 16 more agents to investigate cases of “diversion,” in which prescription drugs are turned over to users who should not have them.

Authorities have pushed a multifaceted approach to the crisis, particularly since Gov. Tom Wolf and the General Assembly reached a bipartisan deal to push more treatment options. Any antidrug effort will rely on treatment as well, Shapiro said, and health insurance companies will have to provide sufficient coverage to help addicts recover.

In addition, he said, federal funds and guarantees for opioid treatment — some of which were under threat by Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act — will remain important.

“We’ve got a lot more to do,” he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Ryan Brown is at 946-7457.