Schumer demands DEA send heroin enforcement team to NY
Spike in overdose deaths warrants action, senator says
Approximately four fatal drug overdoses took place in New York City every day in 2016. That stark statistic was cited by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer as part of an argument he is waging to get the federal government to dispatch a specialized drug enforcement team to New York state.
Schumer (D-New York) called on the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to provide New York State with one of four special heroin enforcement groups that are being deployed to states across the country that are seeing rising rates of heroin abuse.
In a letter to Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, Schumer requested that the agency “include New York as a top priority.”
Schumer said the steady uptick of heroin busts, overdoses and heavy local drug enforcement costs in New York City and Long Island prove that additional federal resources are needed.