SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Incumbent Congressman Marc Molinaro (R) and challenger Josh Riley (D) spoke directly about how they would address Sullivan’s ongoing opioid crisis.  

Historically, both candidates have been vocal on the subject. In 2017, after working as counsel on the Democratic staff of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Riley co-wrote a piece with a former employee of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the George W. Bush Commerce Department. The piece was in advocacy of a vote by the Broome County’s legislature in favor of creating an opioid treatment facility. 

In 2017, Molinaro, as county executive of Dutchess, celebrated the grand opening of a stabilization center as part of the county’s effort to address opioid addiction and mental health. 

The stabilization center is a walk-in facility “for people feeling overwhelmed by mental health, substance use or other life issues,” according to a brochure.

At the time, Molinaro said the 24-hour center was the result of a “unique private-public collaboration” and would stand as a model for New York State and the nation.

Marc Molinaro NY-19  (R)

Molinaro said, “The opioid epidemic is the public health crisis of our lifetime, and, I would argue, upstate New York is the epicenter of that crisis.”

He told the River Reporter he remains committed to supporting and securing state and federal funding for a stabilization center to be built in Sullivan County. Molinaro held a roundtable discussion in November of last year with officials from Dutchess and Sullivan County in an effort to support Sullivan in building a stabilization center. 

Since that meeting, Molinaro says he’s been in contact with Nadia Rajsz, chair of the Sullivan County Legislature; a working group has been created to develop a proposal; and he is ready to support efforts to obtain state dollars and federal dollars to fund the project.

“They are going to need to pull the trigger at some point,” he said, referring to the county legislature. 

He believes in a community-based mental health model, in “meeting people where they are and connecting them with the treatment and support services they need.” 

Focusing on treatment is critical, Molinaro said, “but so is prevention and enforcement, and enforcement can only happen if we secure our border and spend dollars on intervening in drug trafficking, and then [addressing] some policies in New York that make it impossible for law enforcement to intervene, and for us to use tools to incentivize individuals to enter into certain care.”

As co-chair of the bipartisan mental health caucus, Molinaro said, “I’m leveraging bipartisan support to invest in and support efforts like this in Sullivan.” 

“I believe that every county and country should have access to a stabilization center and the resources that come with it,” Molinaro added.

Josh Riley (D) 

Riley said, “Of course” he would support efforts to build a stabilization center in Sullivan county. For him, “it’s a top priority that there are places people can go and get the help they need,” and he would support efforts to build a stabilization center in Sullivan County in Congress. 

“My approach to this comes from growing up in a community that was devastated by the opioid epidemic,” Riley told the River Reporter. Losing a friend who lived “down the block” to opioid use is what Riley said drives his work to end the opioid epidemic.

“I’ve been advocating for a long time for services for people dealing with addiction and mental health, because too often, what happens is people end up getting caught up in the criminal justice system.”

“That’s terrible for people with addiction or mental health issues,” Riley said. “It’s terrible for law enforcement. It’s terrible for the taxpayers.”

Riley said that a stabilization or treatment center “almost always requires federal funding, either through the Department of Health and Human Services and or through the Justice Department. And I have done work in my career in a bipartisan way to increase that funding and provide it to communities that need it, and I will continue to support that kind of work in Sullivan County. My opponent can say whatever he wants to say, but he voted to cut that funding by 22 percent and spent his entire last campaign attacking me for pushing for those kinds of treatment facilities.”

A stabilization and/or treatment center in Sullivan falls under the second prong of Riley’s three-pronged approach. The first is getting drugs out of communities by securing the border and deploying technology that can “detect fentanyl before it goes across the border into our communities,” Riley said.  

The last prong, “in the long term,” Riley said, it’s about rebuilding the middle class. “Data shows that when you have a strong economy with good job opportunities, you have less addiction and substance abuse.”

Mental health and opioid misuse in Sullivan County

Sullivan County’s mental health infrastructure is lacking. In a 2022 study of priorities, Garnet Health, the area’s dominant medical provider, identified mental health treatment and substance abuse prevention as their top two priorities.

There was one mental health provider per 450 people registered in Sullivan County in 2024 compared to one mental health provider for every 280 people statewide in New York. It’s a slight improvement from 2023 data, which showed there was one mental health provider per 490 people.

Sullivan County consistently has some of the highest fatal drug overdose statistics across New York State but has not always received concurrent federal and state assistance. It was only in 2023 that Sullivan secured the federal designation as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and received the associated resources.