“The Heroin Epidemic: A report on heroin use, treatment, prevention and education efforts in NYS,” issued by the Assembly Minority Task Force on Heroin Addiction and Community Response, makes sweeping recommendations for reform on all fronts — prevention and education, detoxification, rehabilitation, recovery and criminal justice.
Among the solutions advocated by the task force:
- expand mandatory education in public schools, beginning in 3rd grade;
- provide state funding for school resource officers;
- create a state clearinghouse of information about addiction;
- increase access to detoxification services by providing more adequate reimbursement rates and funding to increase the number of detox beds;
- require insurance companies to reimburse for expanded time periods for detoxification;
- enact legislation to allow emergency detention of addicts in a hospital for 72 hours;
- require a 72-hour hold by hospitals for anyone who has been administered naloxone;
- develop a civil petition process to allow families to obtain a court order for an addict’s inpatient or outpatient treatment;
- require third-party accreditation of rehabilitation facilities;
- require every person exiting a rehab program to receive a detailed recovery plan;
- require the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services to develop certification standards and stringent
- regulations for recovery programs, both residential and non-residential;
- require mandatory imprisonment for drug dealers and prohibit them from participating in the state’s judicial diversion program;
- enact a felony “death by dealer” law to hold heroin dealers criminally responsible for the deaths they cause;
- require all police departments to have naloxone training and kits supplied.
The Heroin Epidemic – a Report on Heroin Use, Treatment, Prevention & Education Efforts in NYS
