New York, like many states, is now in the midst of a battle against heroin, the destructive opioid tearing at the fabric of our communities and destroying families. My colleagues and I in the Assembly Minority Conference created a task force on heroin addiction and community response which recently delivered its full report on the subject. We have studied this problem at the ground level, speaking with those closest to addiction, those in recovery, family members, healthcare professionals, counselors, and anyone else affected by this drug.

The testimony we recorded led to our plan to combat heroin. The HELP (Heroin ELimination & Prevention) Plan consists of several policies that focus on treatment, rehabilitation and getting the drug off the streets. The pillars of the plan are: Provide Drug and Heroin Education, Create Support Tools and Advocacy Programs, Increase Funding and Improve Methods for Treatment and Recovery, Reevaluate Insurance Parity Laws and Reimbursement Rates, Criminal Justice and Judicial Improvements, and Improve Connections Between the Correctional System and Addiction Services.

In terms of providing drug and heroin education, we are calling for the creation of a robust public service campaign and earlier education on the subject in school. Education is the key to prevention. The earlier we can explain the risks, the better our children will understand them.

In order to create support tools and advocacy programs, we plan to provide support for school resource officer programs, require every person leaving rehabilitation to receive a detailed recovery plan, and evaluate existing supportive household opportunities. Recovery doesn’t end at the door of the rehabilitation clinic. It is a lifetime journey. We recognize this and want to heal that person for life.

We will fight to increase funding and improve methods for treatment and recovery by allocating more to increase the number of detoxification beds, and enact legislation to allow individuals with addiction issues to be held at the hospital on an emergency basis for 72 hours. Our hospitals must be fully equipped to handle the heroin crisis.

During our reevaluation of insurance laws, we will prohibit insurance companies from establishing blanket “fail first” requirements, and require them to evaluate reimbursements for expanded time periods of detoxification. No one should be turned away during the detoxification process. That is inhumane.

In an effort to adapt our criminal justice system to the growing heroin epidemic and improve our judicial system, we want to require all police departments to be trained and have naloxone kits supplied, and enact a Death-by-Dealer law to hold drug dealers responsible for the deaths they cause. Drug dealers play a role in killing these people and we must hold them accountable.

In order to improve connections between the correctional system and addiction services, we plan to require each county and state facility to have a wing dedicated to detoxification, heighten penalties for smuggling contraband into prison, and reimburse county jails for the costs related to detoxification. We need to keep contraband out of our prisons, help those in jail who need help getting clean, and reimburse county jails for their work.

To discuss this or any other state issue, please call my hometown office at 716-655-0951 or drop by 411 Main Street here in East Aurora.