Quote of the Day | July 9, 2019

New Mexico has done many of the same things we have done in Oklahoma to combat opioid overdose deaths, such as the development of closer tracking of opioid prescriptions before physicians write another prescription [and] intervening when physicians are overprescribing opioids . . . I asked what has made the difference in New Mexico’s recent improvements in opioid overdose deaths? The uniform answer from the physicians I met — full Medicaid expansion.”

– Dr. Gerard Clancy, President of the University of Tulsa, describing his takeaway from a recent visit to New Mexico to learn about the state’s success in reducing opioid-related deaths [Tulsa World]

The post Quote of the Day | July 9, 2019 appeared first on Oklahoma Policy Institute.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
from:
via Oklahoma Policy Institute
okpolicyinst

Quote of the Day | July 9, 2018

“Today, some district attorneys and their allies are trying to discredit the progress made by saying there are no savings to reinvest in alternatives and treatment. The money is there, but it is unfortunately being spent on continuing to incarcerate people who battle addiction. As a former speaker of the Oklahoma House, I can say with certainty that a law isn’t much of a law if the people tasked with implementing it don’t believe in it. As long as prosecutors keep sending people to prison for drug possession, reinvestments in treatment that voters demanded won’t happen.”

-Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform chairman Kris Steele, writing about how district attorneys in Oklahoma have continued to pursue the harshest possible sentences they can for drug possession, against the will of the voters and at huge taxpayer expense [NewsOK]

The post Quote of the Day | July 9, 2018 appeared first on Oklahoma Policy Institute.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
from:
via Oklahoma Policy Institute
okpolicyinst