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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 31, 2020 11:11 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Judith L. Schwank |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Emergency addiction treatment |
| In the near future, I will be re-introducing SB 41 from the 2019-20 session, in particular to help address the opioid overdose epidemic in Pennsylvania. In 2016, Pennsylvania had the fifth-highest death rate in the country for opioid overdoses, continuing an annual tragic pattern of increasing deaths. In my home county, Berks, drug deaths more than doubled from 2015. Statewide, the increase was more than 44 percent, underscoring a University of Pittsburgh report that fatal drug overdoses in the Commonwealth had already increased 1400 percent from 1979 to 2014. Every corner of our state has been affected, and current numbers are likely to continue to reflect the past experience. Preliminary numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control project a further increase in 2017, aggravated by the emergent use of fentanyl, to more than 72,000 deaths nationally - well above the 40,000 traffic deaths reported for that year. And the deaths represent only the final tragic outcome of addiction and substance use disorder, not the full cost in lives and finances ruined. My proposal will create an Emergency Addiction Treatment Program under the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs to expand treatment space at existing long-term residential addiction treatment facilities and licensed halfway homes, and brand-new facilities. The program will also provide for new intake methods to help get information to the addicted, their families and friends, including advice and assistance in accessing treatment, and to collect data to identify patterns of addiction. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as SB386