March 19, 2017 Amudim Awareness Senator Todd Kaminsky Part 3 of 4

thank you for allowing me to be here tonight and mission of lessons thank you so much for sharing your story I have been involved in this fight for some time now in many different facets before i was in politics i was a narcotics prosecutor for the federal government but i've seen none a much more personal level lately it's one of the most acute issues I deal with and if you ask me right now if Hashem were to come down and say you get to do one thing and solve one problem out of all the problems and I have to tell you when i go on shabbos when i go to a shul people talk a lot about the potholes on their road everyone talks about the taxes and I certainly understand that and rightfully so of course we talk about other very important issues we talk about Israel we don't talk about drugs and I have been at too many too many rooms like this in too many different settings I have seen personally that it is true that this drug that this opioid epidemic does not discriminate I've been in black churches i've been in the nicest catholic homes in rockville centre I've been with Reform Jews and now I'm here and I could tell you that we have a serious problem and and to me it's the most acute and if Hashem would say to me you get to do one thing what would it be this would be it because once you talk to mrs. Glassman or you talk to a parent and they come up to Albany and they Lobby and you hear their anguish you can't help but want to do something immediately and swear that it that you won't let it happen to another person but that requires all of us working together and I mean that the communities that do the best fighting the epidemic have everyone involved they have the police they have their abundant or whatever clergy in their community they have their educational system they have their friends and family everybody pitches in everyone is aware of the issue I will give you a quick example there are some communities that have a that have a coalition and they get money from the federal government of the state and they have meetings and the meetings involve the principal seniors and juniors in high school the police officers involved parents and they all talk about what they could do in their community to make things better do we need to drink at every event on the beach in Long Beach do we need to have better treatment better mental health better mental health services I think a lot of this comes from having mental health issues we don't talk about mental health we misdiagnosed it you know it's the only disease that it's better to be on Medicaid and have commercial ensure commercial insurance literally it's easier to find your you know the way that it's billed is no one wants to take you on commercial insurance they get such little back so what I what I like to talk about when I come to places like this is what I what I see is really a five prong approach to dealing with this first as a former prosecutor I still think that that law enforcement has a big role to play there are people that are knowingly putting this poison on the street they should be treated like criminals but we cannot prosecute our way out of this problem it's much deeper than that so so having real treatment matters when i hear from families that their son or daughter decided it's time for treatment and they go there or they call there and they're told sorry will call your your insurance needs 48 hours to get back to you that breaks my heart that's a shame right so we need to do better with treatment make it more available and less than our insurance laws third we need to treat mental health like the serious issue it as much of this comes from from from self-medicating and from having you know I can't tell you how many drug addicts I've talked to who started with a dislocated shoulder or a broken ankle or a car accident and and and a lot of that comes lastly from from our medical community right our doctors have been giving people big jars of pills and then you can go to a doctor down the street and get another jar of pills and frankly heroin has become so cheap that it's easier to get heroin the getting close all right so that there's there's a heck of a lot that we could do and of course prevention to me is important we always have to be talking to children in the schools and that's where this comes in if you're if someone I'll make it up that someone is going to Hank someone's going to dark hey if someone is going to North Shore and they're not talking about this work we're fooling ourselves we we have to I'm not saying that this is important as learning hollow sores or starting the Constitution but it's important it should be there there's enough days of school enough hour if this is something that should be talked about it if not let's do it after school lets do it on the weekend and i'll i'll be happy to help arrange that so what I what I what I want really to thank is is miss Glassons brave bravery for coming out for this today hmm I'm going to tell you about a real nasty comment that someone in my office heard because someone out there in this community or in Lawrence or somewhere was thinking it and this is what we need to get rid of a young man in the Rockville Center School District died of an overdose and a woman in my office who helps me with Rockville Centre you know I'm from Long Beach I'm Jewish rockville centre not exactly don't really know anyone that's what she kind of gets me the community tells me what's going on and helps me out and when they were at a wake for this young man she walked out with a lady who said i can't imagine what she's going through but thank God is because it happened to our family right and there are people walking around thinking this they are actually thinking that they live in a bubble that Dale in a cocoon that that you know that Hashem treats them differently but this could happen to anybody and if they are communities to lose that attitude and has to start thinking that these are their children I once saw someone walk around with a t-shirt that said if not your kid whose kid is it and I didn't put that together to later what's what they're thinking of right these are all our children so we so we all have to be working hard to do this so well I'm here to let you know that I'm fully supportive of this this is did something that's been needed for a long time you find a way for me to pitch in or be involved or you want me to bring my my I was going to say the power of my office which is a funny thing because there's no nuts not so much power well well I whatever whatever weight there is i am happy to bring to bear because this to me like i said is the most acute problem I don't walk out of meetings about potholes or taxes crying but when you do talk to parents to talk about finding their children are holding their children it's a different thing if you don't come out of that meeting determined then there's something wrong with you so I'm so happy to see this turnout today let's let's let's have more or less work together to have a bigger program in this community I will facilitate i will bring experts i will provide refreshments you let me know what i need to do although i'm sure they're there caterers out here that would be able to help but just please keep doing this i'm so proud to be here tonight and I and thank you for giving me a few minutes to to address this thank you [Applause]