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Local Reaction to State Efforts to Combat Heroin and Opioid Abuse

“It’s a very, very short window of opportunity there before the drug is calling you back,” said David Attridge of Recovery Now NY.
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“It’s a very, very short window of opportunity there before the drug is calling you back,” said David Attridge of Recovery Now NY.

Governor Cuomo and leaders in the Senate and Assembly say that have reached an agreement on a package of bills aimed at combating heroin and opioid abuse.

Among the many measures agreed to by lawmakers: limiting opioid prescriptions for acute pain to seven days, requiring insurance companies to cover more of the cost for rehab and recovery programs, as well as enhanced treatment services

One local doctor says that's a great start, but more should be done.

“The death rate from heroin and opioid related deaths has increased significantly.  Actually we’re near what the death rate was last year, for the whole year, at this point halfway through the year,” said Dr. Lou Papa, a primary care physician on the public television series Second Opinion. He is also a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

                                                                             

Credit secondopinion-tv.org
Dr. Lou Papa

He says, for starters, there needs to better research for pain management.

"We’ve been approaching pain management the same way through the opioid receptor for a thousand years.  So there needs to be a better way to address pain. And we have a whole new specialty in pain management that has been a help for us in primary care, but we also need better research in how to help battle this addiction, because there’s a high recidivism, there’s a significant number of deaths that occur in very young people,” he said.

Dr. Papa says the only down size to limiting the prescription to seven days is there are people who really do need to take these medications, and putting in any barriers will make it difficult for them.

Overall, he says, there's a need for more resources and coordinated care.