Confronting the heroin ‘epidemic’: new state laws aim to improve prevention, treatment & enforcement

Lawmakers made major strides this week in stemming the escalating tide of heroin and prescription drug abuse on Long Island, according to local prevention advocates and community members.

Yesterday, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed new legislation that will allow for new programs and insurance reforms to improve treatment options, as well as measures to strengthen penalties and provide ways for law enforcement to crack down on illegal drugs.

The legislation also addresses training law enforcement and emergency responders on the proper and safe use of nalaxone, or Narcan, a heroin antidote, and provides enhanced support for public awareness campaigns.

“Heroin has become a public health crisis in communities across the nation, but today, New York State is taking a stand to turn the tide on this epidemic,” Cuomo said yesterday. “I am proud that we are rolling out this comprehensive and thorough response at a time when New Yorkers need it most, and I thank the many advocates, community leaders and elected officials who have made this day possible.”

Earlier this month, Cuomo announced a series of new initiatives meant to tackle heroin abuse, including adding 100 investigators to the state police community narcotics enforcement team; new efforts to make supplies of naloxone available to all first responder units in the state; and the launch of a targeted awareness campaign that will take place on all public college and university campuses.

In 2011, the governor signed the “Good Samaritan 911 law” to protect individuals who seek medical assistance for a person experiencing a drug overdose from prosecution and arrest for drug crimes.

“Today’s bill signing demonstrates what government can do when working together to confront a crisis,” New York State Senator Phil Boyle, chairman of the Senate’s joint task force on heroin and opioid addiction, said in a press release yesterday. “There is no greater crisis facing the State of New York than the devastation that’s been wrought by this heroin and opioid epidemic.”

Susan Toman of the Guidance Center in Southold applauded the new law. She said the decision came after the hard work of local individuals such as Anthony Rizzuto, who founded Families in Support of Treatment, or F.I.S.T.

Rizzuto said in a letter the need for the new treatment options was urgent.

“I can’t tell you how many frantic families had found out that their loved one was addicted to these drugs and were trying desperately to get them help,” Rizzuto wrote, but couldn’t get inpatient rehab covered by insurance companies, which maintained that withdrawal from opiates is not life-threatening.

“One client had overdosed three times, he was only 19 years old and was approved for four days of detox but denied for inpatient rehab. In many of these cases the outcome was tragic,” Rizzuto wrote. “We saw an increase in suicides, overdoses and criminal activity leading to fatalities and lifetimes of incarcerations. Mind you, many were under the age of 25.”

Rizzuto added, “We all came together, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles that had lost or were losing a loved one, treatment providers, prevention workers, concerned citizens — to say ‘no more.'”

Toman stressed the need for both prevention and treatment, which she believes the new legislation will support. “We need law enforcement and our community as a whole to be informed and educated,” Toman said.

Mattituck resident Karen Allar, whose daughter Samantha Dittmeier was only 23 years old when she died of a heroin overdose in 2013, has worked to raise awareness about Narcan, which blocks the brain receptors that heroin activates, instantly reversing an overdose. “They didn’t have Narcan for Samantha,” Allar said.

After the legislation was signed Monday, Allar said, “Thank you, Senator Boyle, for taking a stand against the Long Island heroin epidemic. Hopefully this initiative for prevention and treatment will help to effect change and save lives.”

Felicia Scocozza, executive director of Riverhead’s Community Awareness Program, said the new legislation will increase access to treatment for heroin addiction while hopefully decreasing access to heroin through law enforcement initiatives.

“These are important steps in helping those who may be addicted to heroin,” she said.

However, Scocozza said it’s critical that parents remember that heroin use often begins by early experimentation with alcohol by youth as young as 11 or 12 — and most often, the alcohol is obtained in the home.

“This can lead to abuse of prescription drugs, also found in the home, then to heroin use. So to protect our young people, we need to change community attitudes and norms about underage drinking and continue to work on community-based environmental strategies that reduce youth access to alcohol and prescription drugs both in and out of the home.”

To that end, CAP has launched a summer youth safety campaign, she said.

“Heroin is devastating our communities,” Assemblyman Fred Thiele said. “Almost every day we hear another tragic report of a life lost to heroin or a family torn apart by drug abuse. Heroin abuse has become an epidemic, and it’s time to take action,” he said.

“The measures we passed today will save lives and help ensure that more people can get the help and support they need to overcome addiction,” Thiele said.