Creates the community opioid rehabilitation program services act and the opioid dependency services fund

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 establishes the "Community Opioid Rehabilitation Program Services Act."

Section 2 presents legislative findings.

Section 3 amends Section 1.03 of the Mental Hygiene Law to add a new Subdivision 59, creating the Community Opioid Rehabilitation Program to provide programs and services for the care, treatment and rehabilitation of those persons who are dependent on opioid substances. Such programs and services include, but are not limited to emergency and crisis services; case management and intensive case management services; outpa- tient services; residential services; psychiatric rehabilitation: client advocacy; family and peer support services; and preventive services.

Section 4 amends Section 19.09 of the Mental Hygiene Law to add a new Subdivision (i) requiring the Commissioners of Mental Health, Health, and Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services to promote, establish, develop, coordinate, evaluate, and conduct programs and services of prevention, diagnosis, examination, care, treatment, and rehabilitation for the benefit of persons who are dependent on opioid substances, and their families.

Section 5 amends Subdivision (a) of Section 41.13 of the Mental Hygiene Law by adding a new Paragraph 17 to make the Office Of Mental Health and the Office Of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services responsible for such program development relating to community opioid rehabilitation program services in areas where the responsible local government unit does not receive a grant of state aid specifically for the purpose of funding community opioid rehabilitation program services.

Section 6 amends the Mental Hygiene Law by adding a new section 41.59 to establish the Community Opioid Rehabilitation Program, with funds allo- cated annually by the Commissioner. The Commissioner is also responsible for oversight of program service providers and ensuring that service delivery is efficient and effective.

Section 7 amends the State Finance Law by adding a new section 97-0000, establishing the Opioid Dependency Services Fund under the joint custody of the Comptroller and the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance. The Fund will consist of the annual savings from the downsizing of facili- ties under the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, as

determined in the annual budget. Such savings include the amount of actual state operations general fund appropriation reductions, including personal service savings and other than personal service savings direct- ly attributed to correctional facility closures. The annual appropri- ation to the Fund shall at no time be less than $30 million. In the event that the annual savings from downsizing is less than $30 million, appropriation from the state operations general fund shall make up the shortfall.

Section 8 is the effective date.

Justification

New York State is experiencing a shocking increase in opioid use in both its street and prescription forms. Heroin, in partic- ular, is emerging as a public health concern in every community, but its rise is especially alarming in the state's smaller urban, suburban and rural areas. The increased incidence of heroin use largely involves young people who have turned to the drug in part because of its rela- tively low cost and high accessibility in light of recent efforts to curb accessibility to prescription opioids. Horrifying stories of opioid addiction, drug availability and use in our schools, and family tragedy in which a promising young life has ended with overdose, are becoming far too commonplace. Rising arrest rates of low-level dealers and addicts, often taking place in public areas like suburban mall park- ing lots, are further indication that the resurrection of this drug more commonly associated with street culture has permeated all sectors of society. The extent of the problem is widely recognized by professionals from all points on the front line as an emerging and significant public health issue.

Placed in this context, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision stated in his testimony at the legislative budget hearings that the Department's plan to consolidate through the closure of four facilities during the 2014-15 state fiscal year will generate an estimated an annual savings to the state's taxpay- ers of approximately $30 million. The Commissioner further stated that these savings will come to the taxpayers of New York through the elimi- nation of prison beds throughout the state as the prison population declines, due in no small measure to reforms of drug laws enacted in the 1970s. While there were more than 24,000 drug offenders in the state's prison population at the end of 1996, that number had diminished to less than 6,700 at the end of 2013.

The savings from the closure of prison facilities which, by the Depart- ment of Corrections and Community Supervision's own estimate, is due largely to the diminishing sector of the prison population incarcerated for drug-related offenses, should be directed to community programs designed to address the growing public health epidemic of heroin and opioid addiction.

Prior legislative history

New Bill - 2014

Fiscal implications

The $30 million annual appropriation for the Opioid Dependency Services Fund will be derived from the annual savings gener- ated by the closure of four correctional facilities.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.