Photo Courtesy of Sen. Schumer’s Office
Schumer and Gillibrand made the announcement last Thursday.
By Forum Staff
United States Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand recently unveiled $25,260,676 in federal funding to New York to help combat opioid addiction.
According to the Empire State senators, the funding was allocated through the Department of Department of Health and Human Services’ State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grants. Specifically, the funding administered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will support prevention, treatment, and recovery service programs.
Gillibrand noted that last year she also introduced the bipartisan legislation Preventing Overprescribing for Pain Act, which would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue guidelines for the safe prescribing of opioids for the treatment of acute pain.
“Too many lives have been destroyed, too many families have been torn apart, and too many communities all over New York are suffering because of this tragic epidemic,” Gillibrand said. “These federal funds would allow New York State to fight the opioid epidemic by investing in treatment and services programs. I will continue working with my colleagues in the Senate to fight for the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers.”
Facts on the Opioid Epidemic:
Nearly 2 million Americans abuse or are addicted to prescription opioids, and nearly half a million more are addicted to heroin according to SAMHSA.
In 2015, nearly more than 33,000 people died in the United States from overdose related to opioids, more than any year on record, according to CDC.
The increase in opioid addiction is linked to an increase in opioid prescriptions. Between 1999 and 2010, there was a 400-percent increase in sales of prescription opioid pain relievers in the U.S. Over the same time period, there has not been an increase in the amount of pain Americans report according to CDC.
In 2012, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain relievers – enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills according to CDC.
Teenagers who receive an opioid prescription by 12th grade are 33 percent more likely to abuse opioids after high school. The risk for opioid abuse is even higher among teenagers who report little to no previous use of illicit substances according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Of teenagers who abuse opioids, roughly half obtained the opioids from a friend of family member, according to research by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In a paper published by the American Dental Association in 2011, 64 percent of dentists surveyed preferred prescribing the opioid hydrocodone with acetaminophen for a third molar extraction, for an average of 20 pills per prescription.
4 in 5 individuals who use heroin report prior abuse of prescription opioids, according to SAMHSA.
