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Dear Friend:
One of the greatest freedoms we enjoy is the freedom to speak out and to urge our duly-elected government to act in the best interest of "we the people." LICADD's been doing that as we push hard for passage of the 911 Good Samaritan Bill - legislation that would provide limited immunity from prosecution for possession of small amounts of drugs or alcohol for those who call for medical assistance for themselves or someone else in the event of an overdose.
Overdose deaths generally don't happen spontaneously and instead occur 1-3 hours after ingestion or injection of drugs. Young people, afraid to call the police because they are impaired or have drugs or alcohol in their possession, often delay seeking help and try ineffective and dangerous methods to revive the overdose victim. Many witnesses flee, and without competent and timely medical care, the patient dies.
We are losing a staggering number of our children, neighbors and friends to overdoses on Long Island - about 1 per day. Most overdose deaths are preventable and given the opiate crisis in our region, Long Island's lawmakers need to take the lead in getting this bill done before they break for summer.
The NYS Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill last week, 112-32 and we are pressing the State Senate to take up the bill before they go home for the summer. This bill will save lives, doesn't cost the state a cent and has support from parents who have lost children to overdose, overdose survivors and a wide variety of public health organizations.
Please take a moment to call your state Senator and ask them to pass the 911 Good Samaritan Bill (Bill#5191A). The Senate switchboard number is (518) 455-2800. The nine Long Island members are Ken LaValle, John Flanagan, Brian Foley, Owen Johnson, Craig Johnson, Kemp Hannon, Chuck Fuschillo, Carl Marcellino, and Dean Skelos.
We'll be working hard this week to get the bill passed, but can only do it with your help. Please take two minutes out of your day to make the call and help us save some lives!
Sincerely,
Jeffrey L. Reynolds, Ph.D
Executive Director |
| New Data Finds Teen Girls At High Risk |
 Survey data released last week by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America® and MetLife Foundation found that teenage girls are more likely than teenage boys to perceive potential benefits from drug use and drinking, making teen girls more vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse. Here are some of the findings:
* Teen girls are more likely to perceive "self-medicating" benefits with drinking and getting high.
* More than two-thirds of teen girls responded positively to the question "using drugs helps kids deal with problems at home" (an 11 percent increase, up from 61 percent in 2008 to 68 percent in 2009).
* More than half reported that drugs help teens forget their troubles (a 10 percent increase, up from 48 percent in 2008 to 53 percent in 2009). |
| Docs Copping Out? |
While the federal government has named the misuse of prescription medications the "nation's fastest-growing drug problem," some doctors are arguing against proposed efforts to deal with the problem head-on. Specifically, Dr. Angela Gardner, head of the American College of Emergency Physicians, in a column published last week in USA Today, railed against turning doctors into "pain police."
 She objected to proposals that would require physicans -- including ER docs -- to search a database for patients' medication history before prescribing drugs.
"As an emergency physician, I can assure you that the drug abusers who use the emergency room simply to get a prescription-drug fix represent a micropopulation of the 120-million patients who seek emergency care every year in the USA," she wrote. "With emergency departments continuing to close because of uncompensated care, legislation and funding would be better used to shore up the nation's safety net. Put bluntly, if legislators have money to spend, they should spend it where it will do the most good for our patients, and that is not on drug databases."
USA Today's Editorial Board had another take on things and accused some doctors of abetting drug abuse, saying, "Doctors argue that checking takes precious time away from patients or turns them into "pain police" ... Maybe so. Nonetheless, there's more value to checking. At the very least, doctors won't end up contributing to the problem." |
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Next PUSH Meeting! |
 Our next PUSH meeting will be held on Monday, July 12th from 6:00-8:00PM at the Suffolk County Legislature's auditorium on Vets Highway in Hauppauge, across from the H. Lee Dennison Building. People United to Stop Heroin on Long Island (PUSH-LI) is a bi-county group of concerned parents, young people, and community advocates who in the midst of an unprecedented teen heroin crisis, are advocating for a comprehensive continuum of substance abuse prevention, harm reduction services (including overdose and disease prevention), addiction treatment services, and recovery support for Long Island's young people. We'd love for you to join our group. Meetings are always held in the evening to facilitate broad-based participation, you determine the priorities and EVERYONE has a voice. Most importantly, we are ACTION-ORIENTED. Here's a link to our Facebook group, which now is almost 8,000 members STRONG! |
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| Save The Date! |
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30th Annual R. Brinkley Smithers Invitational Golf Outing
September 27, 2010
The Creek &
Piping Rock
21st Annual Peter Sweisgood Breakfast
November 14, 2010
Melville Marriott
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