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Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. FILE PHOTO
Overdoing it around the holidays is nothing new, and for many people typically involves eating too many Christmas cookies or maybe overdoing it with the Champagne on New Year’s Eve.
But for some, it’s a time characterized by loneliness and struggle, especially for anyone dealing with mental health or addiction issues, a shattered family life, or other stresses associated with the time of year.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney is tuned in to those holiday season realities and recently pushed out a joint public service announcement with the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Executive Director Steven Chassen to try to stem the tide of what they described as an “increased prevalence of overdoses during the holiday season.”
The PSA emerged as Tierney is addressing a growing and sinister problem with fentanyl addiction on Long Island, which has taken some 400 lives here and has recently become an even greater threat to public safety with the introduction of xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer.
That substance, which is legal in the state of New York, is being added to fentanyl and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is present in one of nine fentanyl deaths nationwide. It’s a cheap but potentially deadly high whose presence locally is brought into harsh relief during a holiday season that for some is anything but festive.
“The holiday season sort of amplifies everything,” Tierney said this week. “It’s a good time to spend time with friends and family, reflect, and have a good time, but if you’re struggling or going through mental health or additions issues, it’s a particularly tough time of year.”
He said the impetus for the PSA was to raise awareness that there are resources and agencies out there that can help people get through what can be a painfully isolated and isolating time of year. “There are a ton of agencies out there that can help you,” he said.
Tierney described a conundrum for prosecutors and anyone else faced with the advent of drug cocktails where xylazine, street name “tranq,” is mixed with cocaine or with opioids such as heroin or fentanyl. Narcan can be used in opioid overdose cases, but it won’t help someone who has taken a cocktail where tranq has been added. “If police officers test for fentanyl, they can administer the Narcan, but they can still die,” Tierney said. “It will countermand the effect of fentanyl but not tranq.”
Tierney’s heading to Albany on January 8 with an agenda that includes lobbying lawmakers to “have tranq and some of these other drugs declared illegal in New York State,” he said.
