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NYS Senator Urges Further Action To Combat Heroin Addiction

Heroin
Matthew Kang, flickr

New York’s Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction kicked off a series of statewide forums last week. One of the co-chairs continues to push for a number of reforms he called for last year.

The night before state Senator Terrence Murphy of Yorktown was scheduled to begin the forums, he attended a wake for a 26-year-old man in his town who died from an overdose. The next day, he co-hosted forums in Oneonta and Penn Yan and later in the week, in New York City. He says themes from last year are the focus once again.

“And the stories that you hear, it is all about insurance reform and treatment,” says Murphy.

It’s something the freshman senator urged last year, when he unveiled a seven-point plan, and he intends to push for changes in this area again this year.

“Fifteen days is a joke. These insurance companies got to step up to the plate. And they’ve got to… to allow someone to go in and have 15 days of treatment and then be reevaluated and say, ‘well, you’re doing pretty good, get out.’ And then your recidivism of that is just over 90 percent,” says Murphy.  So we need to get the, we need to fund treatment for these people and get them a second chance in life.”

Democratic Assemblyman James Skoufis agrees.

“Part of it is making sure that OASAS,  the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse here in New York, is properly funded We’re debating that amongst many other items in this year’s budget process  “I believe that we need to build off of what the governor has proposed for OASAS. I think he proposed a 1- to 2-percent increase over last year and we need to do more than that.”

The Orange County assemblyman also supports Murphy’s call to crack down on dealers. Both are co-sponsors of bills to allow a heroin or opioid dealer to face a homicide charge. Here’s Skoufis.

“We need to do more to get the criminals who are dealing these drugs off of the street. And there’s a bill that I’m a co-sponsor of in the Assembly, I’m very supportive of, and Senator Murphy is, I believe, supportive of, that would effectively establish a new crime and be able to charge these drug dealers with homicide when the buyer of whatever they’re selling overdoses.”

Again, Murphy.

“It is an absolute epidemic,” Murphy says. “You have really good people that are getting hooked.”

Murphy says one part of his plan did come to fruition when last year, the state Board of Regents approved regulations to allow Naloxone, or Narcan — a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — on school grounds.

“Every school nurse in New York state has the ability to get certified and allow the kit to be within their nurse… on school grounds,” says Murphy. “And, can you imagine? It was illegal for them to administer it.”

That no longer is the case. Murphy co-chairs the task force with Capital Region Senator George Amedore and Robert Ortt, from outside Buffalo. He says additional forums are scheduled over the next few months, including on Long Island and in Dutchess County. Task Force members will use information from stakeholders and experts during the forums to develop recommendations for legislative action.

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