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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 9, 2020 03:24 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 re-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 legislation was formerly SB 722 of the 2019-20 session. Members who co-sponsored this legislation previously include Senators Farnese, Kearney, Costa, Killion, Brewster, Boscola, Muth, Tomlinson, Argall, Fontana, J. Ward and Street. 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. |
Introduced as SB170