The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found New Mexico has the highest overall drug overdose death rate of any state, but two bills introduced at the start of the 2012 legislative session aim to curb those rates.
SB90 contains language that would allocate $200,000 to the Department of Health to fund a statewide overdose prevention and awareness campaign of legal and illegal drugs.
SJM21 requests the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy to perform a study to expand New Mexico’s drug overdose prevention programs.
Sen. Richard Martinez (D, Rio Arriba, Los Alamos and Santa Fe), who helped sponsor SB90 and SJM21, said the legislation will reduce the number of accidental drug overdose deaths in New Mexico.
“I’m asking the Legislature and the Governor to act with compassion and common sense. These deaths are preventable,” Martinez said. “Overdose spares no one and affects everyone, especially families.”
New Mexico suffered 27 overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2010, more than twice the national average according to the CDC.
Additionally, the overdose death rate in the state has increased 242 percent since 1991.
According to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, 204 individuals died from drug-caused injury in 2010, in the most recent report available.
SB90 has passed the Senate Finance Committee and is awaiting a committee report from the Committees’ Committee and the Public Affairs Committee. SJM21 is currently in the senate Rules Committee awaiting a committee report.
Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort (R, Bernallilo, Sandoval, Torrance and Santa Fe) said the Senate is reluctant to fund new programs, but will evaluate each program’s merits separately.
“What we’ve said at this point is that we would not be putting money into any new programs,” Beffort said. “That being said, a lot of that has to do with what the appropriation requests will be, and I look forward to hearing this legislation.”
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