Suffolk reviews goals to curb heroin

The Suffolk County Legislature's heroin task force, which made a host of recommendations in December, reviewed its priorities at a meeting Friday afternoon.

The Suffolk Heroin and Opiate Advisory Panel agreed that one of its top goals was to push for primary-care physicians to make drug tests routine and provide referral to treatment during checkups for adolescents.

The group is also working to educate the public about the county's social host law, providing training for heroin and opiate overdose treatment for law enforcement officers, and informing inmates with drug addictions about the increased risks of overdose when they are released.

The term of the task force, established last May, will expire in June unless the legislature extends it. Chairman Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said he hoped the group would continue. The "heroin [problem] hasn't gotten better since we started meeting," he said.

The task force's report is available here.

Above, bags of heroin seized in a January drug bust are displayed at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.