Nassau has 70 spots for drug treatment

With drug use, especially prescription opiates, on the rise, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano announced Monday 70 outpatient spots are still available for those wishing to join the county's outpatient Opioid Treatment Program (OTP).

"Nassau County is working tirelessly to help residents overcome drug addiction through our OTP," Mangano said in a news release. "Prescription drugs or 'painkillers' have surpassed Heroin as the substance with the highest number of drug-related deaths in Nassau and the highest cause for admission to local drug treatment programs."

The program at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow offers two treatment tracks -- methadone maintenance and suboxone treatment. Clients are screened for appropriate placement.

The program currently serves 580 people a month.

OTP clients must be addicted for at least a year and must apply voluntarily for the program. Clients under 18 years old must have parental or legal guardian consent and already have tried two or more documented chemical dependent withdrawal or stabilization treatment services.

"The most recent pharmacy shootings are prompting a second look at everything from pharmacy security to addiction treatment access," said Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, "and we applaud Nassau County Executive Mangano's multipronged approach to addressing addiction in our community."

Mangano said that in 2010 "oxycodone alone claimed the lives of 27 Nassau residents and another 58 had that drug in their system when they died. In 2005 there were nine such deaths and only eight others had it in their systems at death."