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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 23, 2016 12:51 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator James R. Brewster and Sen. Jay Costa |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Addiction Treatment Professional Loan Forgiveness Program |
| In the near future I will be introducing legislation that is part of a package of bills that the Senate Democrats are introducing to address the opioid epidemic confronting Pennsylvania. The extent of the addiction and overdose death epidemic in Pennsylvania is appalling, causing at least seven victims to die every day from drug overdoses. There were over 2,500 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania in 2014 and estimates that the 2015 total will be higher action is required. A University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study showed that fatal drug overdoses in Pennsylvania increased 14-fold between 1979 and 2014. Additionally, the highest rates of drug overdose deaths were found in counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, those surrounding Philadelphia and in the northeast near Scranton. Some estimates are that 80% of current heroin users switched to heroin when prescription opioids became too expensive or too difficult to procure. As part of the package of bills we will be introducing the Addiction Treatment Professional Loan Forgiveness Program. The opioid crisis and the necessary programmatic reactions are going to create a need to substantially increase the number of trained professionals to provide services to individuals in addiction treatment. In order to attract more young people to fill these slots PHEAA will be responsible for developing an addiction treatment professional loan forgiveness program. The program will offer qualified alcohol and drug addiction counselors student loan forgiveness up to $7,500 per year for up to four years, totaling up to $30,000. The counselor must agree to work at a licensed drug and alcohol treatment facility for at least 4 years. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as SB1211