Government

State passes bills aimed at tackling growing heroin problem

AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS

• A multimedia public education campaign will be developed to spread awareness of heroin and opioid use and abuse.

• The state commissioner of education will review existing health curricula, requiring that lessons be updated to cover heroin and opioid use and abuse. Such campaigns will be implemented on college and university campuses through the SUNY and CUNY systems.

WORTH NOTING: Felicia Scocozza, executive director of the Riverhead Community Awareness Program, which promotes anti-drug awareness campaigns in the area, said “prevention is the key” to ensuring the overall success of the effort.

“Heroin is much cheaper to buy than illegal prescription drugs, and much easier to obtain now that prescription drugs are becoming more difficult to get. It is important to remember that heroin use often begins by early experimentation,” she said, adding that this is true in all drug and alcohol use.

Ms. Scocozza said that for every dollar invested in prevention, a return of $2 to $20 is realized, adding that in the past, prevention efforts may have been neglected due to the costs associated.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of people age 12 and older who have used heroin increased from 373,000 in 2007 to 669,000 in 2012.

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