09-28-2017 – Senator Gene Yaw announces an October 26th public hearing in Williamsport on the “state of addiction” after three years of investigation of the heroin and opioid crisis in Pennsylvania. Thursday – October 26th 9am – 1pm Walnut Conference Room, UPMC Susquehanna, 700 High Street, Williamsport, PA 17701
HARRISBURG – State Senator Gene Yaw (R-23), Chairman of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania Board of Directors, announced today that the Center will hold a public hearing in Williamsport on Thursday, October 26, 2017 to gather information on what is being done at the federal, state and local levels to tackle the state’s heroin and opioid epidemic.
Joining Senator Yaw at the hearing will be fellow Center Board Members Vice Chairman Representative Garth Everett, Board Secretary Dr. Nancy Falvo from Clarion University, President of Indiana University of PA Dr. Michael Driscoll and Penn State Professor Dr. Timothy Kelsey.
“In 2014, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania held its first public hearing on the heroin and opioid crisis affecting the Commonwealth,” Sen. Yaw said. “That hearing, also held in Williamsport, was followed by 11 additional public hearings over the next two years, resulting in over 70 hours of presentations from more than 150 professionals, family members, and people in recovery. The hearings created statewide awareness supporting and resulting in numerous legislative and administrative initiatives to combat a disease that now claims more lives each year than those lost to traffic accidents.”
Yaw added that the focus of the October hearing is to understand where Pennsylvania is, three years later, in its efforts to confront all of the issues surrounding heroin and opioid addiction. “We are inviting professionals in the fields of law enforcement, the judiciary, treatment and recovery, business and industry, and education and prevention to offer testimony on where we are now in combatting this crisis and where we need to go.”
The public hearing will be held in the Walnut Conference Center at UPMC Susquehanna, 700 High Street, Williamsport, PA 17701 and will begin at 9AM.
Members of the public and media are invited to attend and coverage is appreciated.
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania is a bipartisan, bicameral legislative agency that serves as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
The Center works with the legislature, educators, state and federal executive branch agencies, and national, statewide, regional and local organizations to maximize resources and strategies that can better serve Pennsylvania’s nearly 3.5 million rural residents.
CONTACT:
Barry Denk, Director
Center for Rural Pennsylvania
(717) 787-9555