Heroin Addiction •

Heroin Crisis Must Be Fought Back

June 10, 2016 By Kurt Cottrell Leave a Comment

Heroin addiction will be attacked.

The Heroin and Opioids Task Force together with the initiative of Governor Andrew Cuomo decided to take active measures against the problem of heroin addiction.

After 25 recommendations were gathered from New York citizens and parents, New York officials came up with a plan to tackle opioid excess and increase support for people who need medical assistance and funding to deal with heroin addiction.

Among one of the most important ones will be the extended access to naloxone, a life-saving overdose-reversal medication. Furthermore, family members will have insurance coverage and will benefit from the help of licensed experts to inject the medication or spray it in the victim’s nostrils in the case of a life-or-death situation.

Moreover, consumers will be better informed and educated by pharmacists regarding heroin addiction, palliative care, pain management and the risks or side-effects of opioid consumption.

In addition to this, patients will be provided with only a 7-day supply of painkillers compared to the previous 30 days. However, in the case of chronic pains and other serious health conditions, an exception could be made.

It is also worth mentioning that the number of program slots and treatment beds will increase regarding substance use disorder in New York. Plus, insurers will be mandated to use objective criteria approved by the state regarding the coverage determinations for inpatient treatment.

Therefore, there will be no insurance barriers to this treatment because prior approval for necessary medical care will no longer be required. However, this rule applies only as long as the inpatient treatment is necessary.

According to Dr. Howard Zuker, Health Commissioner, the secret of wiping out the heroin plague lies in a relentless charge from various directions. The Opioid Task Force mission is to save more lives and to stop the spread of this vicious epidemic.

Plus, Zucker believes that if people are prevented from becoming the prey of addiction, the only problem left will be to help those that need treatment and support to recover from this heroin excess. Furthermore, the officials aim to make the opioid drugs available only by prescription. This way, people will no longer have such easy access to these painkillers.

Hopefully, their combined effort will pay off in the battle against heroin addiction that takes so many lives every year.

Image Source:Amdocs

New Ideas Against Drug Addiction

May 18, 2016 By Dean Lamori Leave a Comment

The fight against Heroin continues.

This Tuesday, New York’s Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction released a report against this statewide epidemic.

The number of deaths related to opioid and heroin has drastically increased, and this is why the officials have to take action. The plan must be divided into at least four steps represented by prevention, treatment, recovery, and enforcement.

The first act of prevention would be to limit the prescription of controlled substances, to add drugs such as the sedative Xylazine and the opioid fentanyl to the list of controlled substances and to create some addiction awareness programs and abuse-deterrent technologies.

Another important aspect would be to target the dealers. Sen. Tom O’Mara co-sponsored a package of legislation called R-Big Flats that will make any drug dealer guilty of homicide if someone dies from an overdose of opioid.

O’Mara explained that they do not aim to arrest everyone in order to stop this crisis but that from now on, they will not hesitate to respond to any threat. According to Brooks Baker, Steuben County District Attorney, this legislation will make the dealers think twice before continuing their activity, as from now on, they might be prosecuted if someone dies from an overdose.

However, the reality is harsh because people who buy from these dealers are usually unaware of what they buy. Plus, this problem might lead to death as Baker’s office is handling right now 8 out of 10 overdose-related deaths. Moreover, it is not known yet the total number of victims that died this year because of this overdose.

According to Baker, they still need a little more time to determine whether the deaths came from a combination of heroin or heroin-fentanyl, or some other drugs sold as heroin. Furthermore, there are many other deaths which have not been reported yet.

As a member of the bipartisan task force, O’Mara held a public forum in February at Penn Yan Middle School in order to inform everyone about the most efficient ways to deal with this problem.

R-Corning assemblyman, Phil Palmesano, stated that this report is a loud and clear message about the initiative and the future progress that this legislature is going to rely on. However, the state must continue focusing on this problem and to find better ways to deal with heroin and opioid addiction.

Image Source:Huffpost

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