CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) -To increase public access to fentanyl and xylazine test strips, Governor Kathy Hochul signed new laws on Sunday, November 19. Matthew’s Law permits pharmacies and well being care suppliers to obtain and provides them out for free.
Over at Marra’s Pharmacy, Assemblyman John McDonald telling NEWS10’s Anthony Krolikowski about their first batch of test strips. Along with naloxone, he says pharmacists are prepared to higher serve New York.
“No questions asked policy. For years, pharmacists have been providing needles and syringes to individuals who are struggling with substance use disorder,” said McDonald.
The governor says that is being completed to lower the probabilities of an unintentional overdose, which occurred to the particular person the regulation is known as after. “Matthew’s Law is actually named after Matthew Horan in November of 2020. The supply from his dealer, unfortunately it carried a tragic amount of fentanyl in it,” defined McDonald.
In July and August, NEWS10 reported on spikes in deadly overdoses in Schenectady County. Lieutenant Ryan Macherone says efforts like these make an enormous distinction.
“Looking to law enforcement to solve it [drug use] with arrests is not necessarily going to be the most effective approach. Public-health driven, that’s where we’re going,” mentioned Macherone.
And the information up to now is backing this up. “We continue to keep a close eye on overdose trends here and we see them, as far as nonfatal overdoses go, we see them steadily decline each month.”
Other pharmacies and healthcare suppliers will probably be receiving these test strips quickly. For an inventory of native assets to assist fight substance abuse, click on the hyperlinks above to earlier articles by NEWS10’s Anthony Krolikowski.
