The introduction of new legislation into both the House and the Senate will help fight the opioid crisis, Rep. John Katko said.

The bill, which is currently under review, is called H.R. 2851 or SITSA, Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2017. A similar bill was introduced into the Senate. Katko said the bill was introduced because Central New York has been the center of the epidemic.

“Synthetic drug abuse is at an all-time high in Syracuse, and the SITSA Act would help law enforcement officials keep drugs off the street by making it easier to expand the list of illegal substances,” said Katko.

A 2015 report to the governor and New York State legislature found that opioid analgesic-related deaths increased 30 percent from 2009 to 2013. The report also said opioid-related emergency department visits increased 73 percent from 2010 to 2014.

The SISTA Act states its intention is “to amend the Controlled Substances Act to clarify how controlled substance analogues are to be regulated, and for other purposes.” Part of the bill would create a Schedule A for controlled substance analogues. Analogues are drugs comparable to those already on schedules one through five, in that they act like, look like or are intended to have the same effect. With the passage of this legislation, the attorney general would have the power to add a synthetic analogue known to have a deadly chemical to the Schedule A list, making it temporarily illegal. It also provides for up to five years of research to be done on the drug, after which the drug can be added to other schedules if needed.

Teresa Woolson, the founder of the VOW Foundation in Oswego County and advocate for opioid awareness, said the SITSA Act would do a tremendous amount of good. Woolson said when it comes to opioids,“ it’s the sale, the manufacturing, the distribution that is killing people.”

Woolson lost her son, Victor, for whom her foundation is named after, to synthetic marijuana in 2012. She said had this drug been on the schedule A list, more lives could have been saved, including her son’s. Woolson said one of the biggest obstacles in fighting the opioid epidemic is educating people.

“Understanding and educating the legislators that need to know this, so that they can vote on this with all the information, that’s just the biggest thing,” Woolson said. “I’ve been to Albany and Washington. I haven’t gone on this particular bill, but I’ve gone in the past, and any time I meet with these legislators they’ll say things like, ‘Oh I thought this wasn’t a problem anymore’ or ‘Oh this is still an issue?’ or ‘Oh it’s not affecting you know, my group,’ they’re passing over it as not important.”

Sen. Charles Schumer recently announced a new drug task force to combat the heroin and opioid problem in New York state, according to a press release.

The news comes after Schumer received money from last year’s budget bill, which he used to form Drug Enforcement Administration heroin enforcement teams. The teams will also be sent to Charleston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New Bedford and Raleigh. Schumer said the help from the DEA is much needed.

“New York is getting an A-Team to help tackle the heroin and fentanyl epidemic, and it couldn’t come soon enough,” Schumer said in the press release. “I helped deliver the funds the DEA needed to create these teams because we are in urgent need of help, and a special heroin enforcement team will lend a major hand in the fight to end the opioid scourge.”

Since 1999, opioid-related deaths, which include both prescription opioids and heroin, have quadrupled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Oswego City, Mayor Billy Barlow is taking a different route to tackle what he said are two related problems. Barlow is looking to combat the poverty issues the city faces, which he said goes in hand with drug abuse.

According to a 2017 Oswego Needs Assessment, 29 percent of people live in poverty.

Recently, a request for proposal to find options the city can use to solve the poverty crisis was sent, Barlow said. There are four main aspects specifically Barlow said the city wants to make better. These include child care, housing, transportation and implementing a service to provide people with the skills they need to find and maintain a job. Barlow said if these four critical areas are improved ,then the poverty situation will be better and therefore impact the drug problem in the city as well.

“I think if we provide these programs that encourage people to find work, to stay in work, then they’re probably less likely to get in trouble, and I’m not just talking about drugs, I’m talking about generally speaking,” Barlow said.

Another local Oswego resident Cori Welch started an addiction awareness group with another mother, Amy Pelow. The group is meant to provide a safe space for those addicted to or know someone struggling with addiction to talk openly, Welch said.

Welch said there are many reasons for the opioid epidemic, from people using because of “emotional anguish,” to getting addicted to opioid prescriptions because of medical issues. She said that one thing is for sure: this problem affects everyone.

“I wish I had a solid answer to what needs to be done to fight this crisis,” Welch said. “Somehow, we need to be able to stop the drugs from coming into our country. We need to educate, starting at an early age, and not just for a year or two, it needs to continue. The public needs to know that this can affect anyone. There [are] no boundaries. The drugs do not care if someone is rich, poor, black, white or purple, educated, or not, or how well someone is raised. We need more access to treatment programs at a quicker pace.”

Photo: provided by Eric Norris via Flickr