Brooklyn task force offers ideas on fighting drug addiction
Brooklyn lawmakers served on panel
An eye-opening report released Wednesday by the New York State Senate Joint Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction recommends that the state take a series of measures to combat drug addiction, including limiting prescriptions for pain killers to a 10-day supply, making a drug overdose antidote more readily available, and increasing anti-drug education programs in junior high and high schools.
Three Brooklyn state senators, Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-southwest Brooklyn), Simcha Felder (D-Borough Park-Midwood), and Diane Savino (D-Bensonhurst-Staten Island) were members of the panel. State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) was the task force’s chairman.
The task force was put together in March by the New York State Senate Majority Coalition Co-Leaders, Dean Skelos and Jeffrey Klein, to examine the alarming rise in use of heroin and prescription drugs, also known as opioids, that has claimed lives and hurt families across the state.