“Too Good For Drugs” curriculum expands on Staten Island.

Staten Island, NY –“Too Good For Drugs” Program Now Expanded to 47 Staten Island Schools. Mayor de Blasio in yesterday’s substance abuse press conference on Staten Island announced the dramatic expansion of the successful “Too Good For Drugs” curriculum on Staten Island. Borough President James Oddo thanked the Mayor for agreeing to allocate $70,000 so that the program can be expanded to approximately 47 schools on Staten Island.

“Last year we piloted this curriculum with fifth graders in five Staten Island schools,” said Oddo. “We are grateful that the Mayor has recognized the value of the curriculum as part of the comprehensive strategy to attack the substance abuse problem that continues to ravage our borough. By utilizing ‘Too Good for Drugs,’ we hope to reach kids while they are still young to teach them how to make responsible decisions and how to refuse peer pressure so that they don’t begin using drugs in the first place. ‘Too Good for Drugs’ is a real success story that came out of my Advisory Council on Substance Abuse, and would not have been possible but for the hard work and dedication of many individuals and organizations, most especially Chief Ed Delatorre of the NYPD who is so committed to the program that his uniformed officers co-teach it along with classroom teachers.  I believe this program will make a difference in years to come as the kids who participate utilize the skills and strategies they learn to stay away from opiates in the first place.”

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In addition to the additional funding from the Mayor, Senator Andrew Lanza has also allocated $50,000 for the program to help support the NYPD, which expends significant resources in helping teach the curriculum.

Besides the expansion of Too Good for Drugs, the Mayor announced that Naloxone would be available in pharmacies without a prescription so that it is more available to save those who are in the midst of an overdose, the expansion of the buprenorphine program so that more resources are available to those addicted to get the help they need to get off opiates, and the creation of a new Ad Hoc Mayor’s Heroin and Prescription Opioid Public Awareness Task Force, which will be chaired by DOHMH Commissioner Mary Bassett and Borough President Oddo.