Murphy Unveils Plan to Combat Heroin, Narcotics Abuse
In an effort to combat what he described as a crisis, state Sen. Terrence Murphy (R-Yorktown) last week introduced to the public a seven-point plan to fight abuse of heroin and other drugs.
Murphy kicked off his series of meetings last Thursday at Mount Pleasant Town Hall. The series will continue at venues throughout the 40th Senate District in the upcoming months.
“It’s really an epidemic in the Hudson Valley,” Murphy said.
The senator’s plan calls for:
Legislation requiring insurance companies to cover drug treatment and rehabilitation for up to 90 days;
Using drug seizure proceeds to provide funding for NARCAN, a potentially life-saving overdose treatment, to all first responders;
Providing state funding for school resource officers and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) in all public schools by restoring the Gap Elimination Adjustment school aid cuts made in 2010;
Forming a joint federal, interstate and local interagency law enforcement counter-narcotics task force and removing legal barriers to share data, aspects of which are already underway;
Creating a state grant program that would allow local narcotics units to step up enforcement against drug distributors;
Increasing penalties for major narcotics traffickers; and
Restoring cuts to the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to fund peer recovery, addiction services and treatment programs.
Several dozen residents and a panel of elected officials and drug abuse experts participated in the roughly hour-and-a-half meeting. Murphy said he wanted to gather input on his proposals and would be willing to consider additional legislation after receiving feedback from constituents.
Panelists and residents generally favored Murphy’s proposals. Several speakers said NARCAN must be made more widely available, especially to first responders and school nurses to save lives. Furthermore, additional training on how to administer NARCAN is needed.
“It’s safe and there’s no side effects,” said Dr. Robert Rosenbaum of the Lexington Center for Recovery in Mount Kisco.
Some speakers urged officials to permanently provide special boxes at all local police stations to collect unused prescription drugs to prevent abuse. Somers Supervisor Rick Morrissey said the police station in his town has a drop box for drug disposal and other municipalities could follow Somers’ example.
Hawthorne resident Andy Mancusi said there must be tougher laws on drug dealers.
“The criminal justice system is a joke,” he said.
New outlets, such as phone and text tip lines, must be made available to help substance abusers, particularly youths, added Village of Pleasantville Trustee Colleen Griffin-Wagner.
“People don’t know who to call,” she said.
More education to help students fend off peer pressure and to warn them of the dangers of drug abuse is needed, said Yorktown resident Al Morales. He said “DARE doesn’t go far enough.”
It was suggested by Mount Pleasant Councilman Mark Rubeo that parents should become better acquainted with the warning signs of drug use to get their children help more quickly should they fall victim to it.
Several speakers said parents must participate more in programs that provide information about the dangers of substance abuse such as last week’s meeting. Mount Pleasant Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said he helped organize a program for parents in town about 25 years ago.
“It was poorly attended,” he said.
