As heroin and opioid addiction continues to plague New York and the rest of the nation, advocates on Wednesday at the Capitol called for increased funding for treatment programs in the next state budget.

"We have a situation where right now in our schools and communities, people are doing it with less resources than they had in the past," said John Coppola, Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers.

But drug policy in 2019 could be in for dramatic changes. Governor Andrew Cuomo this week called for the legalization of adult use marijuana, a proposal that comes only a few years after the state began to allow medical marijuana. Some Republicans like Senator Tom O'Mara worry that full legalization could hurt the medicinal cannabis industry.

"I think this will have people self-medicate, whether done through medical supervision with a doctor," said Sen. Tom O'Mara.

Coppola says the revenue generated by legalized marijuana could go toward addiction treatment.

"If you hard wired into the tax policy associated with legalizing marijuana support for prevention, treatment, and recovery, you would have part of the solution to funding initiatives for people to help stay healthy," Coppola said.

Meanwhile, others are calling for the introduction of supervised injection and drug use sites, with the goal of reducing overdoses among those with severe drug addictions. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal backs the idea.

"This is a concept that has been used around the world for decades for people who have substance abuse disorder, and use injectable heroin for example," said Rosenthal said.

But others, like Senator O'Mara, have concerns.

"I think that totally sends the wrong message to the dangerousness of heroin and opioids, and just the deadly nature of it," O'Mara said.

Addiction prevention advocates meanwhile have not ruled out injection sites, but say there should be a cautious approach to the issue.