Sen. Charles Schumer Fighting Western, New York Prescription Addiction

Sen. Charles E. Schumer is trying to fight prescription painkiller abuse. He is doing so by enforcing laws with crimes that involve prescription painkillers. Western New York has been experiencing an epidemic of prescription drug addiction and deaths and it has the senator s attention. Unfortunately, individuals will stop at nothing to feed their drug addiction and consequences often result in trouble with the law. Sen. Charles E. Schumer is campaigning to give law enforcement agencies more power and ability to investigate crimes that are related to prescription drugs. In addition, the new laws would make the sentencing for those found guilty of selling these drugs much stricter. Schumer states “There is a drug epidemic in Western New York and across the state and country. We need to use every tool in our arsenal to keep prescription drugs out of the hands of dealers and away from our kids.” Although prescription drug abuse is a problem all around the country Western, New York is recognized as an area for the most abused opioid painkillers. An individual who is addicted to prescription painkillers likely get their drugs from friends, family members, stealing from a pharmacy or even convincing doctors to write them prescriptions. At a recent news conference, Schumer noted the arrest of women in the Western, New York area who robbed over 1,300 oxycodone pills from a Buffalo pharmacy. In addition, Schumer also invited young adults to speak at the conference. One of the girls explained her drug addiction and how it began with marijuana led into painkillers and eventually ended up with her being addicted to heroin. While these actions by Sen. Charles E. Schumer are extremely admiral there is always going to be a need for addiction treatment centers. A drug and alcohol rehab center has the means necessary to help what may seem to be a helpless person who is addicted to drugs get their life back on track and lead a drug-free life.