Requires the department to draft guidelines for the transition of patients from substances with a high risk of addiction to those with a low risk

3 Co-sponsors

• Tony Avella
• Ruth Hassell-Thompson
• Liz Krueger

Title of bill

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to creating medicinal guidelines to aid in the administration of prescription drugs to patients with high risks of addiction

Purpose

This bill requires the Department of Health to draft guidelines for the transition of patients from substances with a high risk of addiction to those with a low risk of addiction.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 defines the bill as Michael David Israel Addiction Transition Law.

Section 2 directs the Department of Health to promulgate guidelines for transitioning patients from high risk of addiction pain management solutions to low risk of addiction pain management solutions.

Section 3 is the enacting clause.

Justification

Michael David Israel, the son of Avi and Julie Israel, was one of many young people across New York State who battled with prescription drug abuse. On June 4, 2011 Michael David Israel tragically took his own life.

Michael's story is not a unique one. Nationally deaths from prescription opiates have tripled since 1999, and overdoses from prescription opiates now hospitalize more people each year than cocaine or heroin. Additionally, in a recent University at Buffalo study of 75 addicts, 41 percent reported their addiction began with medicine prescribed legally by their doctors.

The rate at which doctors are prescribing opiates is also alarming. In New York State 37 prescriptions are written for hydrocodone, fentanyl, and oxycodone for every 100 New Yorkers. In Western New York that rate is almost double, with 65 prescriptions being written for every 100 residents. These statistics are concerning, and in some regards alarming.

This bill would require the Department of Health develop a set of guidelines to help doctors transition patients from high risk of addiction pain management solutions to low risk of addiction pain management solutions. In some cases, long-term use of opiate pain killers is necessary, but in many cases alternative methods can be used to manage the patients pain while avoiding the potential for a damaging addiction to develop.

This bill does not require doctors to implement these strategies and still leaves the decision for how best to care for the patient up to their doctor, but it does provide doctors with an important resource.

Legislative history

2012: S.6181/A.9093 Referred to Health 2013-14: S.480 Referred to Health

Fiscal implications

Minimal fiscal implications.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become law.