Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

Posted:	May 15, 2019 03:40 PM
From:	Senator Christine M. Tartaglione
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Drug & Alcohol Placement Criteria for Addiction Treatment

In the near future, I will be introducing legislation requiring the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs to develop or adapt state-specific criteria governing placement of people seeking treatment in licensed addiction treatment programs. This bill is similar to Representative DiGirolamo’s HB 386 in the house. My legislation will address the issues with the Department’s proposal to replace the time-tested, state-specific criteria currently in use with a national tool. This newly proposed tool is not tailored to Pennsylvania’s specific needs and is not attuned to the addiction treatment needs of vulnerable populations including pregnant addicted women, addicted women with dependent children, veterans, homeless individuals with addiction and low-level drug offenders sent to treatment as part of sentencing by the drug courts. The changes in placement criteria proposed by the Department are counter-productive and can be harmful to our prevention and treatment system that is working hard to handle the demands of Pennsylvania’s families caught in the middle of our state’s worst drug epidemic. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important bill.
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Introduced as SB722