Following the dedication ceremony at the new Muller Quaker Dairy plant at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, Batavia, Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with local and regional reporters to answer a variety of questions.
WHAM13's Sean Carroll and I both wanted to ask about synthetic drugs.
Carroll asked what action citizens can expect Albany to take on the issue and Cuomo replied, "We’ve taken action. I think we have to take more action. It is a problem that is literally exploding. I have been talking with the legislature and we’re going to be taking further aggressive action in the near future."
Next question, why has New York been unable to pass a bill banning analogs to controlled substances such as Kansas, Colorado and New Jersey, among other states, have done?
Cuomo's first response was, "talk to the Legislature."
He then added, "The Department of Health already issued a ban and I'm working with legislature to get even stricter legislation."
I pointed out that after the health department ban, the bath salt problem in Batavia only got worse. The ban seemed pretty ineffective.
"A ban against sale is a sweeping measure and that’s what this ban is," Cuomo said. "We banned the sale of bath salts. The problem is continuing to grow and I’m working with the legislature on having an even more aggressive piece of legislation, which I hope to have next session."
Would that mean an analog bill?
"I'm working with legislature to get the most aggressive, strictest bill that we can get," Cuomo said.
I then asked him, going after the sale of controlled substances is one approach, but some drug treatment experts suggest more needs to be done on the user abuse side, getting people more aggressively into treatment.
Here's Cuomo's answer: "This nation has fought the sale and use of drugs for generations now, right? You have to attack both sides. You have to try and limit the supply and then you have to limit the user. You have to enforce the laws. It’s public safety. And try to stop the source and supply and we’re trying to both."
What more can Government do
What more can Government do than banning their sale, making them illegal, and treatment? The only real solution is to discover why people feel the need to use any drug and their positively changing their own lives and decisions. There are a whole host of societal and mental health reasons people abuse drugs and no legislation can resolve such things. We spend billions in this Country on law enforcement, substance abuse treatment, and mental health treatment. Sure more money can buy more of all of that, but it is a much bigger problem than just passing a law or spending more, and like the Governor said, is something society has been struggling with for a long time. There has been some recent public outcry on bath salts etc., but other drugs, legal and illegal, continue to destroy lifes in our Community, State, and throughout our Nation every day. People getting directly involved, families being connected, and parents setting the right example are more effective than any bill anyone can pass. As long as there is demand someone will act to take advantage and fill the order. Some get rich, many die, and billons are squandered in a battle that, in the end, only individuals can solve by choosing not to use, seeking help from ample mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, and realizing drug use is a one way trip to no where good.
Michael, I suggest you read
Michael, I suggest you read this story
http://thebatavian.com/howard-owens/china-white-bath-salts-designer-dru…
We also need to unpack this statement:
"What more can Government do than banning their sale, making them illegal, and treatment?"
You make it sound as if NYS has banned their sale in an effective manner. The Department of Health issued a ban, but it has no teeth. There was no enforcement other than perhaps, maybe, a civil suit if the DoH ever got around to it.
"Making them illegal" ... the current "making them illegal" scheme requires the government to identify specific substances, determine they're harmful and/or need to be regulated and then specifically ban those substances. There are literally hundreds of current known substances that can be used in making synthetic drugs. Very few of them, relatively speaking, are specifically illegal to sell or possess.
"Treatment ... " Where does the governor address treatment, even after I specifically ask about doing more to get people into treatment?
So what more can the government do? A hell of a lot more.
And I'm not even talking about making illegal specific substances. The entire drug policy in this state and this nation needs a complete overhaul to more effectively deal with modern drug production, use and abuse.
People make a mistake, as Cuomo seems to do, when they equate the synthetic drug war with law enforcement issues related to the sale and possession of substances such as cocaine and heroin.
There are dangers and problems associated with the sale and distribution of synthetic chemicals that are untested, unregulated, inconsistent in manufacture, and are subject to ever-changing formulas and recipes that seem to deliver results far beyond merely getting somebody high. They have profound public safety implications.
It's the 21st Century and 20th Century notices of enforcement and control are simply ineffective for dealing with the synthetic drug trade.
And I have no confidence that the governor nor anybody else in Albany understands this.
What more can the government do? Plenty. Especially in New York.
Sounds like your criticism of
Sounds like your criticism of the Governor and what he said should be aimed at yourself too Howard. Lots of Fluff and "they can do more", but no specifics. "Banning their sale in an effective manner" What, like they can control the sale of any drugs or are able to control the sale of other illegal items? On law enforcement, didn't you just report on a huge raid by local, County, State, and Federal law enforcement that involved arrests locally and in many other States? I also dispute the difference your trying to make with designer drugs and others more well know such as Meth, Crack, and Heroin etc. While unsafe under any circumstances, BOTH often contain many other substances or are made in conditions that make them extra unsafe and no user knows anything about the safety of what they use or what it truly contains. Your making my point by criticizing the ineffectiveness and difficulty faced by recent legislation in identifying new substances and of trying to legislate things. When there is a will there is a way and no legislation, in itself, will ever eliminate drug use and cover all changes and adaptions made by those trafficking or using. Not sure why you think you know or care so much more than the Governor or those in Albany too Howard. Appears a bit pompous. Easy to cat call the Governor and other Legislators, but if it was as easy as your trying to make it sound and have the solutions to your own criticisms, I am very sure all would happily do.
Michael, the first step is
Michael, the first step is very easy: New York needs an analog law.
The recent raid was a federal action. It took care of one alleged situation. Under normal circumstances, that situation wouldn't even be a blip on the DEA's map. It's just not big enough. As officials say over and over again, at the DEA level they want the big suppliers, not local dealers. Local law enforcement needs the tools to go after situations involving alleged small and medium size dealers at a local level. Right now, they don't have it.
MDPV and methadrone have been controlled substances in New York for a year, so why didn't local law enforcement raid the shops suspected of selling these substances? Because without an analog law, they can't be sure they will find illegal substances. The recipes change too quickly that without an analog law, then the raid could prove fruitless.
The governor was unable to confirm that he supports and the Legislature is considering the most basic of law enforcement tools at this junction: an analog law.
I believe, MIchael, I've been quite specific about the need for an analog law, so your accusation of no specifics is quite specious.
I also asked the governor about taking a more comprehensive approach, one that focuses more on the user and the governor's answer really said nothing at all about rewiring out state laws to more aggressively bring abusers into treatment. The governor said there needs to be a two-sided approach, but failed to articulate a two-sided approach.
"I also dispute the difference your trying to make with designer drugs and others more well know such as Meth, Crack, and Heroin etc."
Man, Michael, do you even know what you're saying?
I mentioned as different from synthetic drugs cocaine and heroin, which are plant based drugs that were the original target of the Harrison Narcotic Act (did you read the story I wrote a couple of weeks ago to help you understand this?) Meth, crack, etc. (which I didn't mention, but you bring up as if I did) are man made drugs and have some similar problems as synthetic drug manufacture, but also have some important differences. The formulas for these drugs are pretty well established, and while the dangerous effects of these drugs are quite harmful to users, they are also quantified effects in most cases (there's always outlier cases, of course). The same can not be said of the modern designer drug market. If you can't see that very basic and real difference, I can't help you. It's just blindness to facts.
"no legislation, in itself, will ever eliminate drug use"
And where have I ever argued for the elimination of drug us? You're arguing with a fiction.
We're talking about management and control as a matter of public safety, not elimination and eradication. People have been finding ways to get high as long as there have been kindling to burn and wheels to roll, and probably earlier than that.
The case can be made that our law-and-order approach to drug use has been wrong for 100 years, but in an era when new drugs are being invented at a rapid pace and distribution of untested, unregulated drugs is easier than ever, we need new approaches to drug use and abuse.
An analog law is an imperfect tool, because it's really focused on the supply side and not a comprehensive approach, but it is a tool that is easy to create and would give local law enforcement some measure of ability to tap down hot spots when the feds don't find the situation of sufficient interest.
Beyond that, you're defending the governor's remarks as if he said something of substance. Where is the substance, Michael? Quote back one phrase from the governor's remarks that isn't just hot air?
Oh, so you are for drug use,
Oh, so you are for drug use, but against designer drug use??? Not defending the Governor's remarks Howard, but just pointing out that just because he didn't give you the answers you wanted when he was here for ecomomic development that it is quite the leap to say he and the entire Legislature don't know what you know or care like you care. I'm sure the Governor's office could send you a number of links for you to follow up on too.
Keep twisting, Micheal. My
Keep twisting, Micheal. My meaning is clear no matter how you try to distort it to fit your own narrative.
Let me get this correct...man
Let me get this correct...man made pharmaceuticals are ok and legal per drs orders...but a plant made by God is illegal and could result in prisonment....LMAO!!!!!!
oh spare me the attempts at
oh spare me the attempts at bringing God into this discussion Mary.... Nightshade is a plant made by God too, so is poison ivy, oak and sumac. People routinely kill these plants as well as giant hogweed, cow parsnip and wild parsnip.
Asprin is a man made pharmeceutical, so is penecillin. So stop with the generalizations, after all you can have and smoke weed if you have a Dr's prescription too. It's regulated not illegal.