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HV Congressman Hosts Telephone Town Hall On Opioid Crisis

Oxycodone pills
Be.Futureproof/Flickr

Days after unveiling legislation to combat the opioid epidemic and stop mass incarceration of low-level drug offenders, Hudson Valley Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney held a telephone town hall Tuesday night to discuss the problem in his district. Constituents raised issues of educating students, offering more support meetings, and mandating insurance companies to better cover treatment.

Democratic Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney fielded questions from eight Hudson Valley residents over the course of an hour. Donna from Blooming Grove, in Orange County, says two of her three kids attend Washingtonville High School. And she wants students to be educated in the classroom about the dangers of heroin and opioids.

“Around prom time they have the mock, the disaster, they bring the totaled car into the parking lot and have a speaker come and talk to the kids about drinking and driving,” says Donna. “Well, I think that needs to be done about this heroin and opiate crisis that’s going on here.”

“Yeah, I like that. And I think it’s really important because we all have a role to play and kids got to know this stuff is deadly,” says Maloney.

Meanwhile, Cynthia voiced frustration with trying to help her son.

“My son started heroin when he was in the tenth grade at Temple Hill — I live in Newburgh — and he’s been on it ever since. He’s been off it for six months now, but the problem is is he has nowhere to go,” says Cynthia. “When he wants to go to a meeting or if he feels an urge to use, he has no meeting to go to. There are not enough meetings, AA meetings, NA meetings, in the City of Newburgh. Considering the problem is so large, you would think that we would have meetings around the clock so that when he’s at 8 o’clock at night, he calls me up and he’s like, ‘I want to use, I want to use, I’m going to go use,  I can’t find a meeting’, I don’t know what to tell him.”

Dawn Wilkin is with TEAM Newburgh, a non-profit coalition serving the Newburgh Enlarged City School District. The coalition works to strengthen collaboration among all facets of the community and lower substance abuse among young people.

“I know in Dutchess County, they started some opiate-specific support groups,” Wilkin says. “So that could be something we could look to try to replicate in the City of Newburgh for those because we do know transportation is an issue for a lot of residents in the city.”

Debbie, calling in from near Port Jervis in Orange County, also voiced concern about the dearth of meetings.

“My son’s an addict. He’s getting out of prison soon,” says Debbie. “I’m terrified because there are no programs for him to go to, well not a lot of places to go for meetings.”

Martin Colavito, also with TEAM Newburgh, told Debbie about a few meeting spots near her and gave her his cell phone number, offering to help guide the treatment path via Catholic Charities.

“If you call me, I will be honored, I will be absolutely honored to navigate you through that process with Catholic Charities,” Colavito says.

Lisa from Fishkill says her son is a recovering addict. While praising some resources in Dutchess County, like CAPE, or the Council on Addiction Prevention & Education of Dutchess County, she echoes Cynthia’s complaint that there are not enough support group meetings, both for recovering addicts and their loved ones. She says there is another problem.

“One of the things we need to do is to address the insurance because, right now, I have insurance through work. However, when they do go to rehab, you have to play it week by week, day by day, to see if it’s going to be addressed, if they’re going to extend the insurance, are they going to extend the insurance,” says Lisa. “Quite honestly, for any success, you have to be in there for at least 90 days, at least.”

Maloney told her he would look into it. And here’s Patty from Poughkeepsie.

“First, I’m happy that the government is finally realizing that addiction is a health issue, that it’s not by choice. Nobody, I think, wakes up and says, ‘I want to be an addict today,’” says Patty. “But my concern is, in Poughkeepsie, we do, as everybody has talked about, we have a huge drug problem. The bigger dilemma is recovery. We don’t have many rehabilitation centers in Poughkeepsie, or the Hudson Valley.”

Also during the call, Maloney referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention having issued guidelines March 15 for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. Amid talk about doctors prescribing painkillers too frequently and in too great amounts, John from Putnam Valley, who identified himself as working in the healthcare industry, offered suggestions.

“I would say that as a condition of relicensing that all prescribers have to complete some type of continuing education regarding this problem and perhaps make a pledge that they will not be involved with  overprescribing medications,” says John. “And, secondly, when a prescription is being picked up at a pharmacy that the pharmacy clearly identifies to the person picking up the medication, that they will accept that medication back that’s  unused.”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea. I like that a lot.” Maloney says.

Maloney ended the call this way:

“And I want you to know that I’m doing everything I can do at the federal level to try to get on top of this as quickly as possible before it costs more lives in the Hudson Valley.”

Throughout the call, Maloney and TEAM Newburgh representatives offered phone numbers and web sites.

Narcotics Anonymous (NA)

TEAM Newburgh — (845) 569-0034

Nar-Anon

NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) 1-877-8-HOPENY (1877-846-7369)

CAPE (Council on Addiction Prevention & Education of Dutchess County) — (845) 765-8301

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