Printed in Saratoga TODAY's newspaper issue Apr. 15, 2016.

1. Heroin Takes Another Saratoga Life
to the site, “Opioids include her-
oin and prescription pain pills like
morphine, codeine, oxycodone,
methadone and Vicodin. When a
person is overdosing on an opioid,
breathing can slow down or stop
and it can be very hard to wake
them from this state. Narcan is a
prescription medicine that blocks
the effects of opioids and reverses
an overdose.”
“Sadly, we have been experi-
encing approximately 4 to 6 heroin-
related overdose deaths per year for
the past couple of years. We have
another 20 or so responses to over-
dose situations that require transport
to the hospital,” said Saratoga Springs
Police Chief Gregory Veitch.
Nationally, heroin-related over-
dose deaths almost quadrupled
between 2002 and 2013, according
to the National Conference of State
Legislators, and drug overdoses kill
more Americans than car accidents
each year.
This kind of nightmare is all too
familiar for the Scheidt family, who
would have celebrated their daugh-
ter’s 32nd birthday on Friday, April 8.
“It [Friday] sucked every which
way but loose,” said Scheidt. “You
wake up every morning, shake your
head and say ‘that was a terrible
dream.’ Then you realize it wasn’t a
dream. It’s reality.”
For Katie’s mother, Eve Cascone
ofWilton,thepainhasbecomeworse
with time. “Now it’s real,” she said. “I
was in denial last year. I can’t deny it
anymore.It’sbecomevery‘inmyface,’
and real. Don’t think it won’t happen
to your child. Not that I’m saying give
According to New York State
Senator George Amedore, “The state
of New York is facing a heroin cri-
sis, and we need to do everything we
can to stop the flow of these deadly
drugs into our streets. Our efforts to
increase prevention, treatment and
recovery to help those suffering with
addiction need to go hand-in-hand
with stronger penalties for those who
are bringing these drugs into our
communities.”
And so, Amedore introduced
“Laree’s Law” (S.4163) in 2015, leg-
islation that establishes the crime of
homicide by sale of an opiate-con-
trolled substance and makes the
crime a class A-1 felony, punishable
by15to25yearsinprison.Ithadorig-
inallybeenintroducedtheyearbefore
bySenatorNeilBreslin,butwastaken
up by the majority in 2015. It passed
the Senate but died in Assembly last
year, and is presently on third read-
ing on the floor of the Senate, while
still being weighed in the Codes
Committee in the Assembly (A.6039,
sponsored by Assemblyman Michael
DenDekker).
Currently, drug dealers are not
held accountable in New York State if
one of their “clients” dies of an over-
dose. If the case is tried at the federal
level, such as in Katie’s situation, then
thedealercanface20yearstolifewith
the added homicide charge.
According to the National
Conference of State Legislators, sev-
eral states press homicide charges
whenadealer’ssaleresultsinanover-
dosedeath.Itcanevenleadtoadeath
penalty in Florida and Nevada.
But, according to Oscar
Schreiber, Public Defender with the
Saratoga County Public Defenders
Office in Ballston Spa, that’s not the
case in New York State. Even some-
one with a prior violent felony, like
rape, who is being convicted of fel-
ony drug possession, might be sen-
tenced to just 2 to 2.5 years in prison,
depending on several other factors,
even if the user who bought drugs
from him dies of an overdose. Some
defendants can face up to 30 years,
depending on priors and other fac-
tors. But none face homicide charges
in New York State.
“A local mother had come to
us originally,” said Amedore spokes-
person Eileen Miller. “She’s a former
Albany police detective from Colonie
and her daughter, Laree Farrell
Lincoln, died of an overdose in 2013.”
Fred Scheidt said Laree had also been
going through rehabilitation when
she died.
Schreiber said it’s especially dan-
gerous for someone who has been
trying to get clean. “Their resistance
to the drug is so down after 30 days
of coming off it, that if they slip and
use, their dead,” he said. “We see a lot
of that.”
“I think people who kill people
need to be held accountable,” said
Scheidt, “not only because of what
they have done, but what they could
do. We could see him [Matthew P.
Charo,defendantinthecaseofKatie’s
death] downtown with his friends.
My family would see him around
town, and all we could think was
what would happen if his activities –
because he was allowed to be out for
whatever reason – what if he killed
someone else. I believe he was still
dealing drugs in downtown Saratoga,
and at any moment, any one of those
could have resulted in a death.”
According to Saratoga Springs
Deputy Fire Chief Peter Shaw, “On
average for the past three or four
months, we have been using Narcan
a couple times a week.”
The StopOverdoseIL.com
website states Narcan™ (naloxone)
is an opiate antidote. According
12 NEWS Week of April 15 – April 21, 2016
Katie-Lynn Scheidt at 3 years old and 20 years old. She would have been 32 on April 8. Photos courtesy of Eve Cascone.
Heroin Anonymous
Capital District Hotline: 518-227-0294
Capital District Email: Info@heroinanonymousnycd.org
To learn about meetings in Saratoga Springs,
call Darrin F. at 518-928-5687 or visit
www.heroinanonymous.org/HAsaratogasprings1.html
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