There is much to like in a series of legislation introduced recently in the state Senate in response to the state’s growing drug problem.

Senators introduced 48 bills, 22 of which have already passed, dealing with drug prevention, treatment, recovery and enforcement. The treatment bills seem to make sense, including bills to continue medical education for prescribers to deal with the flow of prescription painkillers from one source, create guides and instruction to help people use prescription drugs safely, expand overdose data reporting and requiring the Health Department to investigate if state resources help decrease overdoses. Recovery bills include a Sober Living Task Force to establish best practice for sober living residences and increasing treatment options for those in juvenile diversion programs.

The package includes a host of enforcement legislation, notably increasing judicial access to juvenile records so judges can more accurately determine if someone belongs in treatment programs, adds fentanyl and xylazine, a vetinerary sedative, as controlled substances and holds drug dealers accountable for lives lost as a result of drug sales by creating a felony for unlawful transportation or sale of a controlled substance that causes the death of another person.

These measures should become law, but something seems to have been left out – a way to quickly bring on line the sort of treatment and support facilities that areas like Chautauqua County so desperately need. Groups like the Mental Health Association and individuals like Kim Carlson are working on transitional housing where addicts can have peer support while they learn to live without drugs. The ideas are wonderful, but it will take these groups years to raise the money to create suitable space they need and cut through the red tape of state approvals.

The state Senate has done good work on this 48-bill legislative package, but we hope state legislators and officials don’t forget to help make facilities like the peer-supported recovery housing a reality. As Rick Huber of the Mental Health Association can attest, people are still dying from overdoses while dedicated volunteers plug away raising money for facilities we know we need.

We can do better.