STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5566 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 11, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to the distribution in counties with the most prevalent prescription opioid abuse of educational materials regarding the misuse of and addiction to prescription drugs The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision (j) of section 19.09 of the mental hygiene law 2 is amended by adding a new paragraph 4 to read as follows: 3 (4) Utilizing data that is available to the office, including, but not 4 limited to, information obtained pursuant to subdivision four of section 5 thirty-three hundred nine-a of the public health law, the commissioner 6 shall identify the counties in New York state where prescription opioid 7 abuse is most prevalent. Pharmacists licensed by the state to dispense 8 prescription drugs may be notified at the discretion of the commissioner 9 in collaboration with the department of health, about the prevalence of 10 opioid abuse in the county in which such pharmacists are located and 11 encourage the facilities where prescription drugs are dispensed to 12 distribute materials created or utilized pursuant to this subdivision. 13 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 14 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05892-01-1