Posted on 06/18/2014 3:30:56 PM PDT by mgist
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a tough new plan Wednesday to address the heroin problem in New York.
Just one day before the Legislative session ends, New York lawmakers struck a deal with Cuomo on a series of bills that take aim at the growing heroin crisis, WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman reported. New York Lawmakers, Gov. Cuomo Announce New Plan To Combat Heroin Use
The governor said the first step in dealing with the drug problem “is to admit the reality, right? Denial is not an option.” And the reality is “New York has a much more aggravated problem than the rest of the country,” Cuomo said.
Considering heroin abuse often begins with prescription drugs, the agreement reached in Albany doubles the maximum sentence for doctors and pharmacists convicted of doling them out illegally. Cuomo said the deal also makes it easier for addicts to seek help. “There’ll be one standard definition of what is medically necessary so insurance companies frankly can’t play games and decide who gets treatment and who doesn’t get treatment,” he said. The legislation also includes provisions to ensure the proper and safe use of naloxone and support for enhanced public awareness campaigns to prevent drug abuse.
“We will not accept a paradigm where rock stars and movie stars and a professional athlete are the only people worth saving,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Just last week the governor announced the addition of 100 investigators to the state police narcotics unit to combat the rise of heroin use. The move effectively doubles the size of the Narcotics Enforcement Team.
Cuomo said there were more than 89,000 cases of heroin and prescription treatment admissions in New York in 2013, up from 63,000 in 2004.
Experts said a crackdown on prescription drugs has pushed addicts to heroin, which is significantly cheaper and easier to obtain. Deaths from heroin overdoses in New York more than doubled from 215 in 2008 to 478 in 2012, according to the state Health Department.
You may be missing the tie-in of those that profit from the drug problem using the drug problem to ramp up the war on drugs and acquire even more power that will be misused/abused.
Then again, I might be paranoid, but you state yourself; “Right now the process is corrupt, top to bottom. Politicians, journalists, bankers, lawyers, bureaucrats, judges, police, parents, users, and even teachers. They all profit one way or another.”
Just where and how do you crack that egg to make an omelet. Where to start, without total violent civil war?
Singapore is a repressive regime whose subjects enjoy nothing remotely like our constitutional liberties. Advocating that we be more like them is the opposite of a conservative position.
NY on track to treat heroin users better than gun owners.
Apparently you aren’t familiar with doing business in this country. It seems you your views of other nations are tainted as well. Government regulation has made it VERY difficult to start a business in the US.
Singapore ranks 7, and the US has been steadily dropping to 14, for best countries to do business in. Governments role is not to regulate businesses they know nothing about, they are supposed to ensure justice, and protection of it’s citizens.
Singapore ranks 7, and the US has been steadily dropping to 14, for best countries to do business in.
So in your view the only Constitutional liberties worth worrying about are the directly business-related ones? If so, I also wouldn't consider that a conservative position.
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