Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction Releases Report

The New York State Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction today issued a new and comprehensive report describing the steps being taken to address the state's opioid crisis and the ways New York can continue to lead. The report released by Task Force Co-Chairs Senator Chris Jacobs, Senator George Amedore, and Senator Fred Akshar, a series of 11 detailed recommendations to help you build your business.

Senator Akshar said, "Today's report is about getting real, tangible results in our fight against heroin and opioid epidemic. We have made incremental progress over the past two years, but it has been possible to do so with the help of advocates and families. resources to their communities. Anyone who suggests we should rest on our laurels is sadly mistaken. "Our work is far from over, but we continue to make a difference in our lives, we will continue to take care of our communities."

Since the Senate Majority formed its Task Force in 2014, the resources have been committed to examining the multi-faceted causes and effects of the heroin and opioid crisis.

working to find innovative solutions. There was extensive stakeholder outreach, held with nine held (Buffalo, Cortland, Binghamton, Johnstown, Albany, Hudson, Newburgh, Pleasantville, and Mineola) in the last two years alone. State funding has doubled to a record $ 247 million in this year's budget.

The report details the Task Force 's continuation of a four – pronged approach – focusing on prevention, treatment, recovery, and enforcement – in developing legislative and budgetary recommendations. Among the many new statutes highlighted in the Task Force report and passed this session to prohibit "patient brokering" that aggressively targets people in need of a substance. Legislation spearheaded by the Task Force has also served as a national model for other states and the establishment of the federal government's Substance Use-Disorder Prevention and Control of Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act recently passed by Congress.

While some statistics may be used in the measurement of opioid deaths, it is possible to reduce opioid abuse. The report's 11 recommendations form a comprehensive plan to utilize public and private resources to help underserved populations and others without access to treatment, and to improve the support systems. They include:

· Increase resources to support the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals

· Upgrade the I-STOP Prescription Monitoring Program to improve interstate monitoring of potential over-prescribing of opioids;

· Maximize federal funding to help support more children at the state's newly-established Infant Recovery Centers;

· Reduce the cost of naloxone to achieve greater life-saving overdose-reversal medication and enhance public education and outreach on naloxone use and expiration to ensure effective treatment;

· Explore the further limitation of initial opioid prescriptions with certain medical exceptions;

· Require enhanced treatment plans for patients after the first day of opioid use, instead of waiting for the current 90-day standard;

· Additional address addiction in rural areas of the world by improving access to treatment, such as establishing Centers for Excellence on Substance Use Disorder;

Authorize hospital-community-healthcare-SUD care professional collaboration programs to facilitate innovation;

· Improve the use and collection of data to better identify, investigate, and prosecute high-volume opioid prescribers;

· Enhance and create appropriate criminal penalties for drugs that sell substances that result in death; and

· Expand health insurance coverage options for medical marijuana as a method to reduce overall use of opioid medications.