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State and local human services agencies, supported by the federal government, must pool their services to fight the scourge of substance use disorder that resulted in 108,000 overdose deaths last year, according to the general counsel of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no longer an \u2018either or\u2019 proposition, treatment instead of medication. We\u2019re losing 100,000 people, so it\u2019s everything and anything we can think of to get to people before they die,\u201d said Rob Kent of Haymarket, Va., a Syracuse native who served as general counsel at the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports for 13 years prior to his appointment with the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
Kent spoke at The Recovery Station on Clinton Street Road as guest of Genesee\/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, which kicked off its National Recovery Month activities this morning. About 30 people from GCASA and other organizations attended.<\/p>\n
As a key figure in the adoption of the 150-page National Drug Control Strategy, Kent said his office has placed a high priority on harm reduction \u2013 principles and services that include prevention, testing, treatment and care, along with distribution of overdose reversal supplies such as naloxone kits (NARCAN), fentanyl test strips, sharps disposal and medication disposal kits, and sterile needles and syringes.<\/p>\n
Kent said billions of dollars have been appropriated to this initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were accused of being very heavy in the strategy of harm reduction by certain folks in Congress, but we have to be — we’ve got to get to people before they die,\u201d Kent said. \u201cWe need to get them connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that he will use whatever laws are on the books in an effort to save lives.<\/p>\n
‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI’m completely uninterested in winning people’s hearts and minds. We will force them to do what they need to do because the law helps us. They’ll figure out, by the way, down the road, that it was the right thing to do on a human level,\u201d he said. \u201cThey might not be there at the beginning \u2026 but they\u2019ll figure it out when they’re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kent said that he kept the goal of reducing drug overdose deaths at the forefront of his mind as he wrote the criminal justice section of the national strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cI will say that I’m proud of the document; we believe it is a good blueprint,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’re going to go around the country trying to tell the folks what we think needs to be done to stop the number of people who are dying from drug overdose.\u201d<\/p>\n He emphasized that law enforcement needs to stop arresting people for drug use or drug possession.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t work and it has not worked,\u201d he said. \u201cIt overwhelms the criminal justice system with folks they’re really not equipped to deal with. We want people to be deflected, diverted. And we’ve written model laws for states. And I’m going to preach that everywhere I go. We ought to be offering help and services to those folks, whatever that might mean.\u201d<\/p>\n Kent acknowledged that people with addictions will commit crimes, and those people may have been receiving counseling and medication-assisted-treatment in the community.<\/p>\n PROVIDING\u00a0HELP FOR THOSE IN JAIL<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe can’t end that when they end up in a state and local jail. We have to continue that,\u201d he said, noting that jails in Niagara, Monroe, Erie and other New York State counties are offering medications for opioid use disorder. \u201cWe need a plan and connections, before they reenter society \u2026 and we\u2019re working on that across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those connections locally is GCASA\u2019s Reentry Program, which provides case management, peer recovery support and housing to individuals returning to the community after incarceration.<\/p>\n He said another priority is to \u201cmassively increase access to Naloxone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I believe everybody ought to carry naloxone. And I say that everywhere I go, and some folks will say, \u2018No, I don’t need to carry that because I’m not around those kinds of people.\u2019 And I politely say, \u2018Well, you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Calling addiction \u201ca human addiction,\u201d Kent said it\u2019s a matter of caring for others and showing love for those in need.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like to throw numbers around because those are people (who have died),\u201d he said. \u201cYesterday I spoke in Rochester, and a woman came up to me and gave me the mass card for her daughter. She was 27 years old and died in April. One time. It only takes once now.\u201d<\/p>\n CARTELS POISONING AMERICA<\/strong><\/p>\n Kent was referring to the fentanyl epidemic that is being fueled by the cartels south of the border.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only do I know what’s happening on the demand side — the treatment side, prevention, recovery and harm reduction, but I hear about what’s coming in,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it’s scary. The cartels are now pressing fentanyl into fake pills, fake oxycontin, Adderall, Xanax, you name it. And most people don’t even know it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said folks will come in and say they\u2019re using meth or using cocaine, \u201cand when you test the drugs, it\u2019s all fentanyl. That\u2019s what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Kent credited the professionals at GCASA, mental health and other agencies who have invested their lives into seeing others recover and succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don’t think that the staff in a program is pained when one of their folks who left dies, then you don’t understand the programs,\u201d he shared. \u201cI’ve been to too many conferences where staff came up to me and talked to me about the trauma they were experiencing because people left treatment. Before, when people would leave (treatment), they were able to come back. They might not now.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0<\/em>From left, Lynda Battaglia, director of Genesee County Mental Health & Community Services; Avi Israel, president and founder of Save the Michaels of the World, Inc., of Buffalo; Rob Kent, general counsel of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; John Bennett, executive director of Genesee\/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse; Danielle Figura, director of Community Services of Orleans County Department of Mental Health.\u00a0Photo by Mike Pettinella.<\/em><\/p>\n