Pubdate: Wed, 20 Aug 2014
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2014 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: William Murphy

AG: FARMINGDALE STATE COLLEGE AMONG SUNY SCHOOLS GETTING HEROIN 
ANTIDOTE KITS TO TREAT OVERDOSES

Farmingdale State College and 11 other State University of New York
schools will be provided with kits to treat heroin overdoses, state
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Wednesday.

The state will use forfeiture funds to cover the $27,000 cost of 258
naloxone antidote kits for the 12 campuses, including training for
school police officers.

Each kit contains two syringes of the antidote, two atomizers for
nasal use, sterile gloves and instructions.

Schneiderman announced the program at a news conference at SUNY
Purchase in Westchester County. He said Westchester was among the top
10 counties in the state for opioid-related hospitalizations in 2012.

"In just the past year we've seen multiple student overdoses on SUNY
campuses, a tragic reminder that the crisis we've seen in the news is
not so far from our students' dorm rooms," he said in a statement.

The attorney general's office did not have overdose data for
individual schools but said the prime age group for heroin overdoses
is 18 to 24 years. There have been several reports of overdoses at
colleges, including an off-campus death near SUNY Oswego in April and
an on-campus death at Binghamton University last year.

Besides Farmingdale, the schools getting the kits are at Purchase,
Potsdam, Buffalo, Cortland, Oswego, Albany, Geneseo, Adirondack,
Canton, Utica/Rome and New Paltz.

Other schools in the SUNY system might have applications pending, and
no SUNY school that applies will be denied funding, a spokeswoman for
Schneiderman said.

"Given the abundance of opiates available in the region, funding for
these kits by the attorney general's office is greatly appreciated,"
said Marvin Fischer, chief of police at Farmingdale State College.
"Our university officers have been trained to use the kits, but we
hope that we do not need to use them."

A spokesman for SUNY Old Westbury, Michael Kinane, said the college
has an application pending.

Kinane said most of the school's police staff has already been trained
through a Nassau health department program.

Stony Brook University did not apply for the grant because the campus
is already equipped with Narcan and has trained personnel who can
administer it, a spokeswoman said.  
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