Schumer: “It’s a federal responsibility”
KINGSTON – US Senator Charles Schumer visited Kingston Tuesday to announce a proposed emergency funding bill, giving the war on drugs a $600 million shot in the arm. The money would go to law enforcement and treatment programs throughout upstate New York, based on a per capita addiction ratio.
Schumer indicated a dramatic increase in overdose deaths and criminal arrests over the past several years, due to heroin and prescription drug abuse. Opiates accounted for 70 percent of all drug arrests in 2015, up from 30 percent in 2012. Last year, 2,000 pounds of heroin were seized by federal agents in New York, a spike of 10 times the amount seized in 2009, he noted.
“It’s everywhere in America, but it’s particularly a scourge here in the Hudson Valley,” Schumer said. “It’s a federal responsibility. This is an emergency in terms of crime, and human capital, young people lost.”
The Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, introduced by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and co-sponsored by Schumer, goes before Congress next week.
“We must pass that bill. It will be funded on an emergency basis, you don’t have months and years of congressional arguing, the same way other emergencies are funded, like hurricanes and forest fires,” Schumer said.
The senator explained that the funding is necessary to give teeth to the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act of 2015, which recently passed the Judiciary Committee but fails to provide money to implement needed programs. “When there’s no dollars, you’re not walking the walk, you’re talking the talk,” Schumer maintained.
“This is a crisis, this is an emergency, and Congress cannot just twiddle its thumbs,” Schumer said.
“The problem is so broad and so vast,” agreed Dr. Carol Smith, the Ulster County commissioner of Health and Mental Health. “We absolutely need to combine all our resources, local state and federal, in battling this scourge,” she said.
Kingston Mayor Steven Noble called it a critical issue to work together on.
“On the local level, our police departments need more help. This bill would help us with the help that we need, to be able to help cover our overtime costs, help make sure that our officers have the training and expertise that they need, to be able to go out into our community and address the situation,” the mayor said. Noble added that current treatment resources are not enough.
