Posted: | February 3, 2017 01:24 PM |
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From: | Senator Jay Costa |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Opioid Addiction Prevention and Treatment Assessment |
In the near future I will be re-introducing SB 1213 from last session which will help fund programs intended to address the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania. Last session Senators Fontana, Brewster, Tartaglione, Farnese, Schwank, Blake, Dinniman, Yudichak, Hughes, Wiley, Kitchen, and Wozniak co-sponsored the legislation Opioid overuse, addiction, and overdose has become a national and state epidemic. In order to address the situation Pennsylvania needs to expand education, prevention, and treatment efforts. Because this epidemic is driven by opioid abuse, both prescription and illegal, we are proposing that an assessment be imposed on the first sale of opioids within the state by manufactures or importers. The law will prohibit the assessment from being passed onto the retail level. In addition to the treatment and education programs proposed in separate legislation, the revenue from the assessment will be used to support the purchase of naloxone by local law enforcement and emergency management personnel and to support existing county addiction prevention and treatment programs. It is estimated that the tax will generate $60 million in annual revenue. The assessment will be spent as follows:
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Introduced as SB534