Gov. Tom Wolf announcing the funding proposal Tuesday in Norristown.
Credit: PA Internet News Service
Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday that he plans to include $10 million in funding to provide live-saving opioid antidote naloxone, more commonly known as narcan, to police officers and state troopers.
The announcement comes after Wolf poured $15 million in state money and used a $5 million grant to fund 45 treatment centers throughout the state. The goal is save overdose victims and then steer them toward treatment for their addiction.
“This is not a cure,” he said of the funding for narcan. “This is the first step”
“Seconds matter and often times police are the first to arrive,” explained Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Chairman Charles Ramsey, who has previously led the Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. police departments. “We can administer [narcan] as quickly as possibly so [victims] can survive.”
In a statement, the governor’s office explained how the narcan funding falls in line with their policy:
Expanding access to naloxone goes hand-in-hand with the Wolf administration’s “warm-handoff” policy. A warm-handoff is a process in which a person who is identified as having a substance use disorder and/or overdose survivor is transferred from a hospital emergency room or other healthcare provider to a drug treatment provider. Together, Naloxone and the warm-handoff are saving lives across Pennsylvania, and are helping to get those suffering from substance use disorders into treatment, where they can begin their recovery.
Governor Institutes New Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaking to reporters Tuesday.
Credit: PA Internet News Service
“Expanding access to naloxone, a life-saving medication, is critical to giving Pennsylvanians a chance to get the treatment they need,’’ Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “It’s part of the comprehensive plan we need to fight the heroin and opioid epidemic that is harming so many Pennsylvanians. We need to be merciless with drug dealers, understand addiction is a disease, not a crime, and work with the medical and pharmaceutical communities to help curb the abuse of opioids that is fueling this epidemic.”
Shapiro said prosecutors have to be “merciless” in going after drug dealers and compassionate to those who are addicted. He said officials at various levels of government need to support recovery efforts.
“We must hold physicians and we must hold the pharmaceuticals accountable for the damage created by inflicting this on our communities,” the attorney general added.
If the governor’s final budget makes it through the legislature with the $10 million in funding still intact, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will distribute the opioid antidote to police statewide.
Wolf, who will unveil his budget proposal next week, said the $10 million in funding is “living within our means.” In the larger picture of the 2017-2018 budget, Wolf said he is not proposing any broad-base tax increases in the face of a deficit that could be over $1 billion.
Since November 2014, more than 2,320 opioid overdoses have been reversed by first responders throughout the state, the governor’s office said.
