In addition to record $214 million in funding to fight heroin, this legislation will enhance community efforts to break NY’s ‘tragic cycle of addiction and tragedy’State Senator Joseph Griffo today announced legislative action passed in the state Senate that would enhance the state’s efforts to confront the devastating heroin, opioid and synthetic drug crisis.
This latest legislative package follows Griffo’s support to approve more than $200 million in the State Budget toward strengthening the state’s prevention, treatment and recovery programs for individuals and families coping with addiction. Within this budget, $7 million will be invested in the North Country to help local communities overcome this crisis, Griffo said.
“We have already secured a record $214 million this year to improve our strategies in the fight against
heroin and opioids, and I believe these latest measures now passed in the Senate would continue to give communities and police the upper-hand in stopping our devastating drug crises,” said Griffo. “As the drug epidemic continues to evolve and find new ways to destroy our families all across the state, we must always be ready and willing to hit these drug dealers with everything we’ve got. As a member of the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, we remain relentless in our mission to give law enforcement, health care providers and families the resources they need to break this tragic cycle of addiction and tragedy.”
As fentanyl, synthetic and designer drugs continue to create new challenges for communities in every age group and demographic, Griffo said the measures passed Monday in the Senate will help address this problem and make it easier for health care workers to coordinate with each other.
Several measures passed Monday would address the loopholes in existing law concerning the increased use of synthetic and “designer” drug combinations that currently escape criminality:
§ Bill S933 – adds new derivatives of fentanyl to the controlled substance schedule and increases criminal penalties for the sale of an opiate containing a fentanyl derivative. Fentanyl is a strong pain medication that is often combined with anesthesia to prevent surgery-related pain, but it is increasingly being mixed with heroin and other drugs to produce a cheaper and more lethal product.
§ Bill S300 – would designate Xylazine as a controlled substance due to recent instances of this veterinary drug being used to lace heroin. It has emerged as a new threat in the state’s battle against the heroin epidemic because the heroin-Xylazine combination is so potent that it can take multiple doses of naloxone to revive an overdose victim, and even this regime is not guaranteed to be effective. Dealers are using this dangerous drug to “enhance” their products, but risks include a dangerous depression of the central nervous system, causing individuals to drift in and out of consciousness, as well as negatively affecting heart function.
§ Bill S816 – designates Alpha-PVP, also known as “Flakka” or “Gravel” as a controlled substance. Similar to bath salts and methamphetamine, use of this designer drug has been known to cause violent behavior, with side effects including nausea, vomiting, paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, suicidal thoughts, seizures, chest pains, and increased blood pressure and heart rate.
§ Bill S3518 – classifies synthetic marijuana like K2, Spike 99, Spice, Yucatan Fire, Genie, Zohai and many others, as Schedule I controlled substances. These legal herb-like products are laced with a synthetic cannabinoid to produce a high similar to existing controlled substances, but with more dangerous side effects, including hallucinations, vomiting, agitation, increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and other adverse conditions. Not only does the bill provide for the imposition of criminal sanctions on synthetic pot, but also makes it a felony to sell such products to a minor or on school grounds. Further, these actions would criminalize possession of synthetic pot to deter use by law-abiding individuals who may otherwise be unaware of the harmful effects of these drugs.
§ Bill S2722 – bans the analog substances of scheduled controlled substances. By expanding the state’s ability to ban analog substances, state drug and law enforcement agencies are given another tool to combat the quickly moving world of designer drugs that simply “tweak” an existing scheduled substance in order to avoid criminal prohibitions.
§ Bill S658 – adds a new synthetic opiate, U-47700 and commonly referred to as “Pink” to the schedule I opiate list. This inexpensive drug has spread in popularity across the United States and is reportedly eight times more powerful than heroin.
Two measures passed Monday will also help promote information sharing to prevent the abuse of prescription and other drugs, among other benefits of health care coordination. They include:
§ Bill S2639 – requires hospital and emergency room physicians to notify a patient’s prescriber when a patient is being treated for a controlled substance overdose. The measure enhances the effectiveness of the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) Registry when prescribing controlled substances by ensuring that vital medical information is shared among health care practitioners. The bill requires an emergency room or hospital practitioner treating a patient with an opioid overdose to consult the PMP registry and notify the patient’s prescriber of the overdose. Without such notification of the overdose, it is very possible that the prescriber/practitioner would not know that the patient had suffered an overdose of the opioid.
§ Bill S2248 – helps facilitate the exchange of health care information with hospitals, office-based surgery practices, and health care providers who accept walk-in patients not regularly seen by the provider. These practitioners would utilize and maintain an electronic health records system that connects to the local regional health information organization, aiding in the prevention of drug abuse by giving these clinics and urgent care centers the ability to see patient records and whether there is a history of drug use or prescriptions. Additionally, these clinics would add details of the visit to the patient’s records for any future medical treatment, thereby ensuring the patient receives appropriate care.
A NIDA funded Johns Hopkins study found that those who had smoked cigarettes were more likely to use illegal drugs, and 16 TIMES more likely to have tried heroin. Keeping kids from starting smoking would go a long way in preventing other drug epidemics.
“Results of this study deliver a strong cautionary message that those who smoked cigarettes before the age of 15 were up to 80 times more likely to use illegal drugs than those who did not.”
http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2000/smoking-drugs.html