State Senate Fighting Heroin, Opiod Crisis

Senator Greg Ball was recently appointed to the New York State Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction to develop recommendations and to prevent and treat addition.

The task force will host a drug crisis roundtable in Carmel at 6 p.m. April 24. The public and media are invited to attend.

“The epidemic of heroin addiction plaguing our communities must be confronted head on. It is sickening to read and hear of the countless deaths in our community. We must get to the kids before it’s too late, talk is cheap, and what is needed is funding and resources. As legislators, we must do everything in our power to protect our children from drug addiction,” Ball said.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that every 19 minutes, one person dies from an accidental overdose from prescription drug abuse. 

In 2012, in an effort to curb this prescription drug crisis, the Legislature enacted the seminal I-STOP legislation. Due to the success of I-STOP, street access to controlled substances has declined. One unfortunate side effect of this is that drug abusers are turning to other drugs, such as heroin, as the cheaper alternative to prescription drugs.

The April event will take place in the Paladin Center Tactical Training Facility, 39 Seminary Hill Road, Carmel.

In their draft budget, the state Senate included $7.95 million to combat the heroin epidemic across New York State: $5 million was included for increased heroin prevention, treatment and recovery support services; $2 million for additional residential intensive treatment beds; $500,000 for pharmaceutical take back and $450,000 for opioid drug addiction prevention and treatment.