ALBANY – New York State Senator Fred Akshar (R-52nd District) is pedalling two works of legislation fixed on stomping out addiction of opioids and e-cigarette products.
On Friday, the NY State Senate passed both bills which supporters say will help curb addiction, particularly among young people.
One of the bills requires health practitioners treating minors to educate about the dangers of addiction and to receive written parental or guardian consent before prescribing opioids.
According to Akshar, who sponsored the bill, this would help thwart the sharing of painkillers and extra prescriptions which can be a gateway to heroin use.
“We need to attack the heroin and opioid epidemic from every angle, and successfully preventing addiction before it starts is always the best scenario,” Akshar said, adding his goal of getting parents more involved. “I’ve heard from stakeholders at roundtable meetings around our district and time after time, I’ve heard parents recount how their children’s addictions arose from being prescribed opioids after injuries or surgeries.”
The bill also limits the amount of opioid-based prescriptions to no more than a seven-day supply unless there’s a medical emergency.
The other bill, also sponsored by Akshar, intends to stop the free distribution of electronic cigarettes. Currently, the state’s public health law does not include e-cigarettes in the distribution of tobacco products without charge to minors despite it being illegal to sell e-cigarettes to youth under the age of 18. This means e-cigarette manufacturers can still give away their product as a “free sample” at events.
Akshar’s proposed law would explicately prohibit the distribution of tobacco products to minors.
“Letting manufacturers utilize a loophole in the law to give e-cigarettes to minors is unacceptable,” he said.
Although e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, the do have nicotine which has been proven to be addictive and can harm memory, cause attention issues, and create cognitive and behavioral issues on youth.
The use of c-cigarettes has nearly tripped over the last year.
The Senate’s passing of both bills came in the same week that the state comptroller announced opioid overdose death rates rose faster in New York than in most states.
On thursday, the Office of the State Comptroller released a report disclosing that overdose deaths related to heroin and prescription opioid abuse reached a record high of 825 in New York in 2014 (the last year for which data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics). Hardest-hit areas include Erie, Monroe, Oneida, Orange, and Suffolk counties.
This number represents an increase of 159 deaths (or 24 percent) over 2013. It’s also nearly 25 times the number recorded in New York just 10 years earlier.
Comparing 2014 data, only one state in each category (Massachusetts for heroin-related deaths, and Connecticut for prescription opioids) had a greater increase in overdose deaths than New York.