Pastrick for Justice

09/07/2019

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27554568/mlb-weighing-opioid-testing-skaggs-death

Major League Baseball and the players' union are in the preliminary stages of discussing testing players for opioids, with both sides expecting talks to ramp up in the coming weeks, sources told ESPN.

08/08/2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/opioid-crisis-victims-in-virginia-demand-justice/

Opioid victims lament destroyed lives after a previously unreleased database reveals how many drugs flooded their towns

07/24/2019

https://buffalonews.com/2019/07/24/life-saving-opioid-er-treatment-born-in-buffalo-to-go-statewide/

For the last two decades, almost all patients brought into a Western New York emergency room after an opioid drug overdose were stabilize...

06/17/2019

https://www.orchardparkbee.com/articles/letters-to-the-editor-22/

Arming police with Narcan is a smart choice Orchard Park town government has had its share of missteps lately, mostly arising from its failure to follow the disclosure requirements of the Public Officers Law. But the decision of its Police Department to equip officers with the life-saving opioid ove...

05/08/2019

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/buffalo-opioid-court-gets-2-million-to-expand-caseload/71-cd7ca243-e236-49e3-af1c-00ae70d8c40d

This program has become a national model, with other drug courts starting across the country and locally such as in Amherst and Niagara Falls.

03/22/2019

Normally I don’t talk about my day job on social media (or, frankly, anywhere else), but there is an interesting (non-legal) story from my week in Albany.

For those who work/visit downtown Albany, between the Hilton (where I usually stay when I’m there) and the Court of Appeals is Pine Street, which runs down a hill from the area of Capitol Park toward the Hudson River. The employee entrance to/garage for the Court of Appeals is on Pine Street, and last week there was a significant traffic accident in which the driver of a motor vehicle crashed into and destroyed three parked cars just across from that side of the Court.

That contact actually was lucky. The driver was traveling down the fairly significant hill toward a four-way stop that I cross every time I walk from the hotel to the Court. The driver also was unconscious at the wheel, having overdosed on he**in.

Fortunately for the driver, his life was saved through two doses of Narcan kept at the Court and administered by emergency responders. There’s a lot to be drawn from that incident. I’m grateful that nobody was seriously hurt, and that no life was lost.

03/22/2019

https://buffalonews.com/2019/03/20/overdose-deaths-fall-to-four-year-low-as-more-drug-users-get-help-on-the-front-line/

Efforts to curb drug fatalities are paying off in Erie County as treatment providers dramatically change how they work with drug users and u

03/01/2019

This week the Chief Judge of the State of New York gave the “State of the Judiciary” address in the Bronx. It’s appropriate to think of the “State of the Judiciary” as sort of a State of the Union for New York State Courts.

It’s also appropriate to think that all of our hard work in Orchard Park might have affected part of that address. According to an article published in the New York Law Journal, the Chief Judge’s address included reference to “the addition of 10 new opioid courts across the state” based on the success of such courts “in changing how those drug offenders are treated in the justice system.”

This is the important part. In her speech, the Chief Judge recognized what this group has said all along: the opioid court “is now the model for how to stabilize and help save the lives of high-risk drug offenders through its use of immediate intervention and referral to evidence-based treatment; close case management and judicial supervision; and deferral of prosecution — pending successful completion of treatment.”

Success isn’t always measured by the percentage of votes a campaign or a candidate earns. Sometimes the best metric is the effect the campaign has had on the community. This is one of those occasions, and we’re proud to have played a small role in highlighting a issue and a program of unassailable public good.