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Schumer: NYS Will Create Heroin-Tracking Database

National drug control policy officials plan to meet with New York State Police and local governments to help create the first-ever heroin tracking database.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer says the database will be used to further combat the heroin crisis and other drug-related crimes in New York, by helping law enforcement identify patterns, crack down on heroin rings across county lines, target resources to high crime areas, determine which drugs are more sought after, and pinpoint necessary security changes in drug distribution networks.

New York Attorney General Eric Scnneiderman’s Organized Crime Task Force has successfully dismantled a number of heroin rings around the state. Most recently, it secured nine convictions related to its takedown of the Albany-based street gang  "the Original Gangsta Killas."

Schneiderman says "incredibly addictive" heroin is now cheaper and stronger than it has ever been.

"...and some folks relate that to the drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, so there maybe some reasons that we can do very little about. It also just seems to have lost its stigma, particularly with young people."

Senator Schumer says federal, state and local government officials will meet within 60 days to determine how to go about establishing a new statewide sharing-database, dubbed “DrugStat."
 
Schumer joins a long list of public officials who have come out swinging against heroin, which has reached epidemic proportions, including Vermont Congressman Peter Welch. Vermont’s at-large representative says he heard from House colleagues after Governor Peter Shumlin devoted his entire state of the state address to the heroin issue.

"This is pretty widespread. You're seeing reports now in the New York Times talking about all the heroin that goes to New York and then gets distributed all over the Eastern seaboard. We've got a distribution issue which is law enforcement, but then we've got a health issue affecting our kids."
 
Meanwhile, New York state Senator Kathy Marchione of the Capital Region recently convened a drug summit.

"We are seeing a rise in heroin and opioid abuse and addiction. It's led to more overdoses and tragic deaths. We saw Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a father of three, one of the most gifted authors of his generation, die from heroin abuse. It is on the rise in New York State and particularly on the rise in the Capital Region."

Schumer suggests funding could be provided through a grant from the Department of Justice’s Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which helped New York City set up a similar program.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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