MONTICELLO — It's well-known news that Sullivan County has experienced poor health outcomes for some time. Since 2011, the county has been ranked second to last in the state (61 out of 62) in terms of health factors, in a study done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Multiple county organizations have been rallying to improve those numbers. The Public Health Services Department brought in Dr. David Lee, MD, of NYU Langone Health to conduct a study on chronic disease in Sullivan County.

At the Sullivan County Legislature's Health and Family Services committee meeting on Thursday, the legislators heard Lee's report. Lee said the national average for diabetes in the country is 9.4 percent. In Sullivan, it's 10.5 percent.

Lee presented maps that showed “hot spots”—areas where diabetes is more prevalent—and those areas included Monticello and Liberty.

The data was obtained through a survey that was sent to most Sullivan residents in the mail. It received a 30 percent response rate, or about 20,000 people, which Lee said was very good.

In addition, Lee has a new approach to collect data —from the emergency room. Lee is primarily an ER doctor. He said nationally one in five people visited the ER last year. Since that's such a large number, Lee used ER data to find out where chronic diseases are prevalent.

Using these findings, Lee hopes to identify neighborhood-level factors that explain why certain communities have better or worse diabetic health than others. One such factor is dietary patterns and the food environment. Lee hopes to chronicle every food source and restaurant in the county to see if that correlates with health behaviors.

Slow the roll: legalized marijuana off the table

As the legalization of marijuana could become a reality in New York State, Sullivan County legislators are saying not so fast. On Thursday they passed a resolution “to approach legalization of an adult-use program for recreational marijuana slowly and cautiously.”

It seemed likely that recreational marijuana would be legalized this year, as it was on the state budget. However, just last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo took it off the budget, which makes it less likely that it will be passed this year.

But the Sullivan legislators still want to make their position known, with some legislators like Alan Sorensen (R) District 9 saying they are adamantly opposed.

The resolution states, “currently available research and findings from across the nation identify significant public health ramifications,” including increased risk of unintentional exposure in children.

But a study by the New York State Department of Health in July 2018 contradicts that statement. According to the study, “Regulation leads to little or no increase in adult use, and there is little evidence that regulation leads to an increase in use by youth.”

The legislature's resolution states “marijuana use by adolescents and young adults- even less-than-weekly use- is associated with future high-risk use of tobacco, and other drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, opioids and methamphetamine.”

But the NYS study says, “the research community generally does not recognize the premise that marijuana leads to the use of other substances as a legitimate or plausible assertion.”

As the opioid crisis hits Sullivan County, and the rest of the country, the legislators worry that recreational medical marijuana will hurt efforts to end the crisis. But according to the NYS study, “marijuana may reduce opioid deaths and opioid prescribing.”

The legislature is calling upon “Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the State Legislature to further study the specific and cumulative impacts on all aspects of the cannabis business.”