As the final two months of the 2019 Legislative Session begin, Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer is asking for constituents’ opinions on issues affecting New York State and the Western New York community.

“From paper bag fees to driver licenses for undocumented immigrants and legalizing marijuana, your opinions on issues affecting New York State and the Western New York community are very important to me," Ranzenhofer said. "With the new majority in the Senate, there have been many new topics arising this year. With your help, I will continue to represent the views of my constituents."

Residents can complete the 2019 Legislative Questionnaire survey here that's on Senator Ranzenhofer’s website. The 13-question questionnaire covers a wide variety of legislative issues that have been in the forefront this Legislative Session.

State Senator Mike Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Steve Hawley have called on the Governor to restore funding for local Ag Academy, through a program of targeted education funding, referred to as “Bullet Aid.”

“I was very disappointed to see cuts to various agriculture programs," Ranzenhofer said. "The Genesee County Ag Academy provides a unique opportunity to students who are looking for a hands-on experience in agriculture education.

"I am hopeful that the Governor realizes how crucial these programs are and allocates the necessary funding. We are respectfully requesting $100,000 for the Genesee County Agriculture Academy, through the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership."

“New York’s agricultural industry is one of the strongest in the nation, having been realized through a robust and consistent investment in young aspiring farmers and producers in our state budget," said Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia). "To cut funding that empowers future generations of young people interested in farming would devastate the industry and hinder our labor pool. Genesee County is undoubtedly a production hub in our state and the Genesee County Agricultural Academy is the centerpiece of teaching and innovation.

"The $100,000 we are seeking for this institution is readily available through discretionary bullet aid and I implore Gov. Cuomo to make the right decision for New York agriculture.”

This agribusiness program began through funding that Senator Ranzenhofer secured in 2013. Since then, the program has received funding in the budget through local agriculture assistance. For the first time in recent history, the Governor has $5 million to be given out at his discretion, for local education programs.

The 2019-20 budget was passed on April 1st.

State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has announced today $54,000 in state funding for public libraries throughout Genesee County.  

“From summer reading programs to job searching tools, public libraries enrich our communities by providing invaluable services to residents. Local libraries operate with a limited budget, and this state funding will help to offer more services to their patrons,” Ranzenhofer said.

The total funding will be distributed among Genesee County’s six public libraries:

• Byron-Bergen Library, $9,000;
• Corfu Free Library, $9,000;
• Haxton Memorial Library; $9,000;
• Hollwedel Memorial Library, $9,000;
• Richmond Memorial Library, $9,000; and
• Woodward Memorial Library, $9,000.

The funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including capital improvements, new books, learning materials, software, programming and computers. The funding is part of the 2017-18 State Budget. The funding is administered by the New York State Education Department.

State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer announced today that Pavilion Public Library has been awarded $283,877, while Byron-Bergen Public Library has been awarded $65,355, in public library construction funds.

The funds are from $14 million in capital funds for public library construction provided in the 2014 State Budget. Pavilion Public Library’s grant is for a new 1,790-square-foot children’s addition to the library’s existing building. Byron-Bergen Public Library’s grant is for fixing drainage issues in the parking lot, replacing an emergency exit door, and installing energy-efficient windows.  

“Whether for Internet access or to promote reading among children, our local public libraries provide invaluable resources to so many residents in our community,” Ranzenhofer said. “These two grants for Pavilion and Byron-Bergen public libraries will ensure that many of their important services are secured for future generations.”

New York’s public libraries are in urgent need of renovation and upgrading. A recent survey showed a documented need for public library construction and renovation projects totaling more than $2.2 billion. More than 48 percent of the more than 1,000 public library buildings in communities across New York are over 60 years old. Another 30 percent are more than three decades old.  

Many of New York’s local public libraries are: unable to accommodate users with disabilities; are energy inefficient; cannot provide Internet, computer and other electronic technologies to users because of outdated and inadequate electrical wiring; and do not have sufficient space to house the library’s expanding collection; cannot address the need for adequate meeting room, or provide for public access computers.

Project activities and expenditures eligible for grants from the $14 million State Aid for Library Construction Program include: financing construction of new library buildings; construction of additions to existing buildings; and the renovation and/or rehabilitation of existing space. The latter includes: roof replacement; purchase and installation of alternative energy resources and new HVAC systems, windows, doors and lighting systems; electrical upgrades; and construction of new or replacement of old walkways and parking lots, among other things. Renovations designed to provide accessibility for patrons with disabilities are a high priority.

State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Stephen Hawley have introduced special legislation, S.1292/A.4367, in the New York State Legislature to allow the use of rifles for big game hunting in Genesee County.

“In several areas of New York State, sportsmen are allowed to hunt deer with rifles and this change in law would allow the use of rifles in Genesee County,” Ranzenhofer said. “As the this year’s session progresses, Assemblyman Hawley and I will be working together to get this bill signed into law.”

Assemblyman Stephen Hawley is sponsoring the bill in the State Assembly.

“Hunting is very popular in Western New York, and this legislation is being requested on behalf of the Genesee County Legislature. I am pleased to address concerns of local governing bodies from my district and will work with members of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee to bring this bill to the floor for a vote,” Hawley said.

Last fall, the Genesee County Legislature and the Genesee County Federation of Sportsman Club requested the special legislation to be introduced at the beginning of the 2015 Legislative Session.

Existing environmental conservation law only authorizes the use of pistols, shotguns, crossbows, muzzle-loading firearms or long bows when hunting deer from the first Saturday after Nov. 15 through the first Sunday after Dec. 7.

The bill has been referred to the Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation in the Senate. If enacted into law, the bill would take effect immediately.

Perhaps you've seen this campaign mailer attacking Sen. Mike Ranzenhofer. 

The Ranzenhofer campaign issued a statement about it today:

Albany's special interests are at it again. This time, a powerful teachers union is attacking a legislative idea suggested by a group of fourth-grade students and their teacher. It's ironic that the union representing teachers is attacking a legislator for getting a law passed to make yogurt the official state snack when students at Byron-Bergen Elementary School first requested it. What is even more bizarre is that the political mailing is filled with a myriad of spelling errors. It misspells loses ("looses"), Ranzenhofer ("Razenhofer"), the Town of Batavia ("Batvia") and the yogurt manufacturer, Alpina ("Aplina"). If the union handed in this political attack to be graded, it would be returned with red ink all over it with a note to keep practicing spelling. Teachers union candidate Elaine Altman should give it a failing grade.

Press release:

Senator Mike Ranzenhofer has announced that the State Senate has passed 23 bills to address issues surrounding the increase in heroin and opioid abuse, addiction, and related crimes in New York.

The bills are part of a comprehensive legislative package proposed in a report by the Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction. Senator Ranzenhofer hosted a public forum last month at Batavia City Hall, along with Task Force Chairman Senator Phil Boyle (R-C-I, Suffolk County).

“Heroin and opioid addiction is a very serious issue facing communities all across the State. This legislative package will help to combat the rise in heroin and opioid addiction and its negative effects on our communities,” Ranzenhofer said. “I encourage the State Assembly to act on each and every one of these bills immediately.”

“As a Heroin Task Force, we hosted 18 forums across the state, heard from 276 panelists, had over 2,300 attendees, and listened to over 60 hours of testimony. The information and insights we have gained as a result of these forums, and the added input from countless New Yorkers affected by this epidemic, has helped us craft these 23 pieces of legislation. These bills supported by Republicans and Democrats will encourage prevention, enhance treatment options  and strengthen law enforcement as we combat this unprecedented epidemic. By working together, across party lines, we will save lives and prevent tragedies,” Boyle said.

The passage of the bill package begins the legislative response laid out in the report to prevent drug abuse and overdoses; increase the availability and efficacy of addiction treatment; and enhance the tools provided to law enforcement to keep heroin off the streets.

The task force bills passed yesterday include:

Preventing Opioid Abuse and Overdoses

• Preventing opioid overdoses in schools (S7661): Clarifies that school districts, Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) programs, charter schools, and other educational entities may possess and administer naloxone to treat opioid overdoses, and will be protected by Good Samaritan laws.

• Increasing the effectiveness of overdose prevention (S7649A): Provides that naloxone kits distributed through an opioid overdose prevention program must include an informational card with instructions on steps to take following administration, as well as information on how to access addiction treatment and support services. Opioid overdose prevention programs provide those at risk of an overdose, their family members and their friends with naloxone kits and training on proper administration.

• Limiting prescriptions for acute pain (S2949A): Limits the number of Schedule II and III controlled substances prescribed for acute pain to a 10-day supply to prevent excess pharmaceuticals from being dispensed, and therefore reduce the risk of diversion. This restriction would not apply to the treatment of cancer pain, chronic pain or palliative care. Further, the bill provides that only one copayment may be charged for a 30-day supply.

• Increasing public awareness (S7654): Requires the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) and the Department of Health (DOH) to establish the Heroin and Prescription Opioid Pain Medication Addiction Awareness and Education Program. The program would utilize social and mass media to reduce the stigma associated with drug addiction, while increasing public’s knowledge about the dangers of opioid and heroin abuse, the signs of addiction, and relevant programs and resources.

• Establishing school drug prevention programs (S7653): Adds age-appropriate information about the dangers of illegal drug use to junior high school and high school health class curricula.

• Promoting pharmaceutical take-back events (S6691): Requires OASAS to post guidelines and requirements for conducting a pharmaceutical collection event on its Web site. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), nearly 70 percent of those who first abuse prescription drugs get the pills from a friend or relative. Facilitating proper and timely disposal of unused narcotics helps to reduce the danger of diversion.

• Ensuring prescribing practitioners stay abreast of best practices (S7660): Creates a continuing medical education program for practitioners with prescribing privileges. DOH and the State Education Department (SED) would establish standards for three hours of biennial instruction on topics including Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP) requirements, pain management, appropriate prescribing, acute pain management, palliative medicine, addiction screening and treatment, and end-of-life care.

Increasing the Availability and Efficacy of Addiction Treatment

• Creating a new model of detoxification and transitional services (S2948): Establishes the Opioid Treatment and Hospital Diversion Demonstration Program, requiring the development of a new model of detoxification and transitional services for individuals seeking to recover from opioid addiction that reduces reliance on emergency room services.

• Establishing a relapse prevention demonstration program (S7650): Creates a Wraparound Services Demonstration Program through which OASAS would provide case management or referral services for nine months to individuals who successfully complete substance abuse treatment programs. These community supports-access to which is intended to prevent a relapse – include educational resources, peer-to-peer support groups, social services and family services and counseling, employment support and counseling transportation assistance, medical services, legal services, financial services, and child care services.

• Enabling parents to require children to undergo treatment (S7652A): Provides that a parent or guardian may petition to have a minor child designated as a Person in Need of Supervision (PINS) due to a substance use disorder, and that a court may require a PINS child to undergo substance abuse treatment.

• Establishing assisted outpatient treatment for substance use disorders (S7651A): Enables a court to order Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) for an individual with a substance use disorder who, due to his or her addiction, poses a threat to him or herself or others.

• Promoting the affordability of substance abuse services (S7662A): Improves the utilization review process for determining insurance coverage for substance abuse treatment disorders, and requires insurers to continue to provide coverage throughout the appeals process.

Providing Additional Resources to Law Enforcement

• Studying the conversion of correctional facilities to treatment centers (S7655A): Directs OASAS and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to study the feasibility of converting closed correctional facilities to provide treatment for substance use disorders. Agencies would examine the feasibility of such centers providing both inpatient residential and outpatient care.

• Establishing the crime of homicide by sale of an opioid controlled substance (S7657): Creates an A-I felony for the unlawful transportation or sale of an opioid that causes the death of another.

• Restricting drug dealers from participating in the SHOCK incarceration program (S7656): Holds drug dealers accountable by preventing participation in the SHOCK incarceration program – under which young adults receive substance abuse treatment, academic education, and other services to promote reintegration – by individuals convicted of a A-II felony drug offense, except if he or she tests positive for a controlled substance upon arraignment.

• Creating Drug-Free Zones around treatment facilities (S1388): Establishes a B felony for the sale of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a drug or alcohol treatment center or methadone clinic.

• Improving safety at judicial diversion programs (S1879A): Requires a court, in determining a defendant's eligibility for a judicial diversion program for alcohol or substance abuse treatment, to consider the underlying charges and the defendant's propensity for violent conduct. The bill also requires the facility treating a defendant under this diversion program to notify the local law enforcement of the defendant's placement and arrest record, and to submit a security plan to the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to provide for the safety of staff, residents and the community. Finally, this bill allows a defendant to appear via video conference, and makes unauthorized departure from a rehabilitation facility a D felony.

• Reallocating funds from asset forfeitures (S7658): Reduces the state share of certain asset forfeitures to increase allocations for the reimbursement of expenses incurred by localities for investigation and prosecution, and provides additional monies for the Chemical Dependence Service Fund.

• Expanding the crime of operating as a major trafficker (S7663): Facilitates convictions for operating as a major trafficker by reducing the number of people that must have participated from four to three, and lowering the minimum required proceeds from the sale of controlled substances during a 12-month period from $75,000 to $25,000.

• Establishing the crime of transporting an opioid controlled substance (S7659): Allows prosecution for a new crime when an individual unlawfully transports an opioid any distance greater than five miles within the state, or from one county to another county within the state, to address diversion and distribution of heroin and prescription drugs.

• Facilitating the conviction of drug dealers (S7169): Provides that possession of 50 or more packages of a Schedule I opium derivative, or possession of $300 or more worth of such drugs, is presumptive evidence of a person’s intent to sell.

• Establishing criminal penalties for the theft of blank official New York State prescription forms (S2940): Expands grand larceny in the fourth degree to include the theft of a blank official New York State prescription form. This bill would also redefine criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree to include the possession of a stolen New York State prescription form, and create an A misdemeanor of criminal possession of a prescription form.

• Prosecuting acts by street gangs (S4444A): Creates the Criminal Street Gang Enforcement and Prevention Act to provide a comprehensive approach to protecting the public from gang-related crimes and violence, including those that relate to drug trafficking, and establishing the criminal street gang prevention fund. The bills have been sent to the Assembly.

Daniel Placek seemed to have everything going for him. After graduating from Niagara Falls High School, he joined the Navy, served in Japan and came home, taking a job as a plumber five days after his discharge. By age 23, he owned his own home.

As the only child of Dan and Cheryl Placek, he was given every middle-class advantage in life. He was involved in sports, made lots of friends, worked hard, and he could always count on his parents when he needed help.

What they couldn't help him with, though, despite their best efforts, was drug addiction.

Five years into his career as a plumber, Daniel hurt his back. His doctor prescribed opiate-based pain medication.

"We could see a change in him over the last year of his life," Cheryl said. "We didn't know what it was. He was anxious. We couldn't figure it out. His friends were concerned. His employer called me a few months before he died and said what's up with Dan and we didn't know either."

Finally, Daniel confessed to his parents. He couldn't stop taking the pain medication he was prescribed.

Cheryl went with him to see his doctor. The doctor's solution: prescribe suboxone.

Suboxone is an opiate-based narcotic. It's often used to treat heroin addicts and others addicted to opiate-based pain medications, but suboxone is itself habit forming.

"Within days of withdrawing, Daniel became paranoid," Cheryl said. "He was talking about not wanting to live. We took him to ECMC, but we couldn't get a bed. We were there for 17 hours on Christmas Day in 2011."

Finally, they were referred to Lakeshore Hospital and Lakeshore agreed to admit him for seven days. On the fifth day, he was released to an outpatient clinic.

"They said he wasn't talking about taking his life so he was OK," Cheryl said. "It's like they were only listening to what he was saying and not what we were telling them, and here's my son who wasn't thinking straight."

They family tried getting Daniel into another program and hit roadblock after roadblock.

"He said, 'mom, don't you see, people don't want to help me anyway.' " 

Against their original doctor's advice, Cheryl finally called the VA and begged the VA to take Daniel as a drug-treatment patient. It took two weeks, but the VA finally admitted Daniel to an inpatient program.

"He went in with full family support," Cheryl said. "We were there, his best friend was there, his girlfriend was there. That night at 1:15, the nurse called me and said, 'your son's passed away.' I asked her what happened. She was reluctant to tell me, but finally she told me. He took is own life."

The story of Daniel Placek is not very different from a half-dozen other stories that came out this morning during a two-hour State Senate Hearing at Batavia City Hall on the state's growing opiate-based drug problems.

When Cheryl Placek spoke, she held the picture of her son, pointed to him, and said, "This is the face of addiction."

She wasn't the first mother Friday to use that phrase during the hearing, and the faces being pointed to weren't burned-out crank heads living in the squalor of urban blight, but healthy, well-scrubbed faces of young men and women who grew up in rural communities, went to good schools, got good grades, came from strong nuclear families.

"In 2001, the Sisters Hospital wanted to open a methadone clinic here so we took a look at our opiate addictions and we had three active patients," said John Bennett, director of GCASA. "Roll the clock ahead, we now have 175 active admissions at any given time. We've treated 483 people since 2008 for opiate addiction. None of them look like, for lack of a better term, the traditional junkie.

"It used to be nobody wanted to be a junkie, that was leper of the addicts," Bennett added. "You roll the clock ahead and it's young kids using opiates and heroin."

The hearing was led by State Senator Phil Boyle, chairman of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and State Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, who arranged for the hearing in Batavia. On the panel where members of the local criminal justice community as well as leaders in drug-treatment programs. In the audience were those who deal with drug addicts, their parents and a few recovering addicts themselves.

The themes heard in Placek's story were repeated by both the professionals, those who have been through treatment, and the parents of addicts.

• It's too hard to get into treatment;
• Treatment is often over too soon;
• There's little or no follow up, and if you're off drugs, you can't get treatment even if you still feel you need it;
• Opiate-based drugs are easier than ever to get and more widespread in the community than ever before.

It was the same story for Mary Flippi, a mother of five. Two of her sons are addicts.

For one son, his first experience with drugs was at age 11. A friend introduced him to marijuana. She said by the time he was 15, he was addicted to heroin. By the time he was 22, he had overdosed three times.

To get him into rehab one time, she called every facility in Western New York she could find. Then she drove around Pennsylvania trying to find a facility to admit him. Finally, he found treatment for her boy in Louisiana.

"He was there for seven months, but within the first hour of him leaving, he relapsed," Flippi said. "He was at the airport waiting for his plane and the anxiety got to him. He went to the bar and spent the $10 they had given him for the trip home."

Flippi observed, "drugs are not the problem for the addict. Reality is the problem for the addict."

As he continued down the path of renewed drug use, Flippi again tried to find a treatment facility that would take him.

Eventually, she became so desperate that after he stole a dirt bike from his own family, she had him arrested just so he could go to jail while she continued to work on getting him into treatment.

Later, Boyle would recall this statement and remark, "It's a story we've heard repeatedly around the state. A parent is put in a position where she must have her child arrested to get him into treatment. That is a system that truly needs reform and that's what we're doing here."

After jail, Flippi's son was placed in a 28-day treatment program, but within a week of his release, he was drinking again. Four days ago, he tested positive for heroin and cocaine.

"I'm at my wit's end," Flippi said. "I don't know where to go from here, because there is no place. There are placed to go, but they are no help. Twenty-eight days doesn't work, and just to get to 28 days, you have to fail in outpatient first before you even get 28 days."

Sheriff Gary Maha said heroin and opiate use is a significant and growing problem in Genesee County.

Most of the drugs sold here come out of Rochester.

Heroin is a growing problem because it's cheaper than pain pills. He said he's heard of people selling their pills for $25 and more per pill so they could buy heroin at $10 to $20 a bag.

"A few years ago, heroin was unheard of in Genesee County," Maha said. "Now it's very prevalent and very available. Half the buys by our Local Drug Task Force now involve heroin."

After the meeting, Maha said he thought it was an important discussion.

"What I heard today was very enlightening, even for me as somebody who has been in the business a long time," Maha said. "When you hear from the families of the addicted persons, even the recovering addicts, it kind of opens your eyes. We look sometimes strictly from a law enforcement perspective, not even thinking about the treatment and the education parts, but it's going to take a concerted effort by everybody to fight this thing. It's a difficult and complex issue."

Where heroin used to the drug of last resort for the most addicted junkies, said Bennett, it's now part of the potential mix for first time and novice drug users.

Teens use heroin, but more commonly, they raid grandma's medicine cabinet and swipe her pain pills.

"They're getting together on Friday nights and they think they're just having fun, but what we know about opiates is, if you use them for two or three weeks -- and some of these kids are popping them every day thinking that's just what grandma is taking -- that when they try to stop, they find they are getting sick, so they start taking pills before going to school just so they don't get sick."

Augusta Welsh, director of community services, Genesee County Mental Health Services, said she's a big fan of drug take-back days hosted by local police agencies.

"One thing we see kids doing is they will take anything and everything just to try it," Welsh said. "They call it fishing They will put all of the pills they got from their grandmothers' and put them in a bowl and say, 'look at all the pretty colors,' then they'll pull something out. If they take it with alcohol, then it delivers the effect much quicker."

With the rise of heroin and opiate-based drugs in Genesee County, UMMC's emergency room has been much busier, said Mary Beth Bowen, chief nursing officer.

She said in 2013, ER admitted 62 overdose patients. There have been 130 so far this year. Now that number includes all brands of ODs, including alcohol, but the underlying root cause is heroin and pain medications, she said.

What UMMC is also starting to see is more use of e-cigarettes as a drug delivery method, and several panelists and audience members expressed concern about e-cigs as a kind of gateway into drug use or tobacco cigarettes.

Audience member Nicholas Burk, a resource officer at Batavia High School, said he one time he witnessed a BHS student beg her mother for an e-cigarette. This was a girl, he said, who was a athlete-scholar, a straight-A student who never received a referral in her life.

All of her friends had e-cigs, she said, so she wanted to be part of the crowd.

"She thinks it's OK," he said.

There was a lot of back and forth about whether marijuana is a gateway drug. Some in the audience are convinced it is.

Rose Mary Christian expressed shock and dismay that the Legislature would even consider medical marijuana. Ranzenhofer said it's a complex issue. It's hard to turn down a parent who says marijuana is the only drug that will stop her child's seizures and prevent almost certain death.

Boyle said there's a lot of discussion in Albany about medical marijuana, but he promised that recreational marijuana will never be legal in New York.

Dr. Bruce Baker, medical director for GCASA, said the data doesn't support the notion of marijuana as a gateway drug, but it does lower inhibitions and many young people have been introduced to harder drugs just because marijuana brought them into closer contact with people already using harder drugs.

Two recovering addicts also spoke. One was a woman currently living in Batavia who said she got into prostitution to support her drug habit and has seen other young women fall into the same trap. She wants to warn young women away from drugs for that reason. She was among the speakers who complained about how difficult it is to get into drug treatment.

One speaker challenged the panel to look at the people in the room talking about addiction and how it affected their lives personally. It was largely a white, rural and middle-class audience.

"This is the face of addiction," She said. "We are very typical people and I hope we can give it a voice and get more help in our community because it's here and it's big."

Boyle said the message was heard loud and clear, and with modern technology being what it is today, changes are already in the works.

"As we've been talking, I've been texting with my staff in Albany about what some of you have been saying," Boyle said. "They've already done the research and sent back some draft legislation that we could introduce as soon as next week to address some of the concerns raised here."