TRENTON — Seeking to curb the unprecedented abuse of heroin and opiates in New Jersey, state lawmakers Thursday took the first step toward comprehensive reforms of the state’s approach to substance abuse treatment and prevention.
Experts from the medical field spent more than two hours testifying before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, explaining the yawning gap between science and public policy, and offering recommendations on how to narrow it.
Some of the recommendations were simple enough that they could be implemented with an iPhone, but most others would take time and money.
But committee chairman Joseph F. Vitale, D-Middlesex, said opiate abuse in New Jersey has become a public health crisis and a pressing priority in recent months among legislators.
“People need to know that this is as important an issue in terms of health care as any other epidemic,” he said.
Experts were armed with enough statistics to prove it.
The state has had more than 700 opiate overdose deaths since 2009. Forty-six percent of treatment admissions last year were for heroin or opiates. Overdoses lead all accidental deaths in New Jersey, and of those, opiates have been involved in 75 percent, said Dr. Louis E. Baxter, the president and executive medical director of the Professional Assistance Program NJ, a drug and alcohol counseling services.
Camden, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties lead the way in overdose deaths, Baxter said.
With a little more than 6,000 beds for 72,000 people seeking treatment, there is a logjam seeking treatment for “this epidemic (that) has spread,” Baxter said.
He and other experts said there are fundamental flaws in New Jersey’s treatment options and access to them, which they suggested is an indictment of the nation’s approach to substance abuse.
Drug addiction is not about drugs, it’s about brains, said Susan E. Foster, the vice president and director of policy research and analysis at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. It must be diagnosed early, treated individually and monitored regularly for a long time, she said.
Foster, citing a 2005 study by the center, said 3 cents of every dollar was spent on substance-abuse prevention and treatment in New Jersey, while the remaining 97 cents went to “shovel up after the fact — in our jails, in our health care programs, in our schools, assistance programs and even our workforce.”
A “full treatment experience” — detox, medication, therapy — results in a success rate of about 80 percent and at far less cost, Baxter said. Gov. Chris Christie last week said it costs New Jersey roughly $24,000 to treat an addict through the state’s drug court program, but $49,000 to jail them for a year.
Treatment providers are another area with problems.
Less than 6 percent of treatment referrals come from health care providers, she said. Most referrals come from the criminal justice system, she said, “indicating our failure to prevent and treat the disease until the costly consequences occur.”
Foster said in the U.S. there is no reliable estimate on who is providing addiction care. There are few restrictions on who “can hang out a shingle and say ‘I’m providing addiction treatment,’ ” she said, adding that few medical professionals are well enough trained to provide treatment for addiction.
In New Jersey, as in most states, the largest number of people offering treatment are drug counselors, whose minimum requirements are a high school diploma or its equivalent, she said.
“Addiction care is largely disconnected from mainstream medical practice,” Foster said.
Baxter and Foster also recommended, among other things, requiring addiction education in all health care curriculums, participation in the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, a campaign to educate the public on opiate abuse, and expanding insurance options to include long-term care.
Vitale, the committee chairman, said the meeting was the first step toward “comprehensive” changes to the state’s approach to substance abuse treatment. He said the Christie administration is eager to discuss options, but comprehensive change will be costly and time-consuming.
“We have to have a blueprint,” he said. “And to say that we can’t do it because of the money — we can do it, but it takes time.”
It’s been an epidemic in Ocean County this year, and now it’s being called an epidemic in Monmouth County. And it’s killing teens.
Heroin. Ten dollars a pack. Easy for your kids to get a hold of. Addicting and deadly. So…you might want to say ‘not my kid’ but you will be shocked at the information below:
In the Freehold Regional High School District alone, 721 kids have sought professional help for a heroin addiction. At Manasquan High School, 164 teens are hooked on heroin. 37 young people have died from a heroin overdose so far this year. And it’s everywhere around these beautiful Jersey Shore towns.
So how are your teens’ friends and fellow students getting hooked on heroin? 80 percent begin using with their friends, and then get hooked on it and will hide the addiction and the heroin, using alone…until they overdose.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is starting to hit the schools to tell parents and students what is going on and spread the word. Ocean County Prosecutors are doing the same….even more young people have died there from heroin.
And to make matters even worse, the heroin in our area is stronger than around the rest of the country, making it even more deadly.
Here’s what can save your child: Communication. Keep talking about saying NO to drugs. And tell your kids how much you love them. Because of those kids in a recent study who stayed drug free, most said they did so because they did not want to disappoint their parents.
So, next time your kids say they’re ‘hanging out’……don’t assume that everything is okay. Don’t say ‘it’s not my kid.’ Keep your eyes and ears open. Get your kids talking. Love them. And please keep them safe the best way you can.
A very real and personal story shared by Aunt Rachel. This is the tragedy that effected our family. This is the reason why prevention needs to be spread.
Every summer since I can remember, my husband’s family has gathered at the New Jersey shore, where he and his three siblings grew up. All together, we were a group of eighteen, ten adults and eight cousins. These yearly reunions were a wonderful time for the kids to reconnect after the long school year. There was nothing quite as beautiful as watching them ride the waves together. The picture to the right, taken in July 2010, shows the smiling faces of cousin Bobby (16, from Houston, TX) and cousin Justin (20, from Freehold, NJ).
The two boys couldn’t have been more different. Justin was outgoing and boisterous, and had the ability to captivate an entire room with his big personality, humor and generosity. When he was in high school, Justin was a state-ranked weight lifter, an all-county football player and captain of the football team. Bobby, on the other hand, was a quiet observer with tremendous wit and charm. He was a gifted academic with a scientific mind, likely of genius intelligence, earning a nearly perfect grade point average as well as a nearly perfect SAT and advanced SAT scores.
Yet, despite their differences, they had one thing in common: An addiction to prescription medications that ultimately resulted in their deaths. Justin was 21 years old when he died. Bobby was just 17.
Justin started using marijuana when he was 14. By the time he was a senior in high school, he also started to use prescription pain medications recreationally. Once in college, his recreational use turned to addiction, and after one semester, he failed out and returned home. His parents had absolutely no idea that he was using prescription pills and thought his return was because he was home sick. In 2009, while attending community college, Justin ‘totaled’ his car. Admitting marijuana abuse, Justin wanted help so in 2010, his parents found him intensive outpatient treatment. But then in 2011, expensive items in the house went missing, yet the theft was a mystery. Justin’s parents did not learn of his addiction to prescription medications and heroin until he was stopped for a traffic violation and police found a needle and a pill in his car. Justin willingly entered a 30-day rehab program and soon thereafter, moved to a sober living facility. On July 13th, 2011, just days after a family gathering, Justin was found dead in a hotel room; the cause of death was drug overdose.
Bobby’s path to addiction was the same as Justin’s. He too started using marijuana heavily when he was 14. At 15, his recreational drug use escalated significantly. His mother’s pain medication, prescribed as part of her breast cancer treatment, went missing. Initial thoughts of Bobby’s involvement in the theft were disregarded, as it seemed preposterous that this high-achieving student would take drugs. Despite the lock that was then used to safeguard the medication, it continued to disappear. Bobby’s mother lost her 9-year battle with cancer on March 1, 2011, just three months prior to Justin’s death. Bobby, now 17, vowed to use his gifted mind to help find a cure for the deadly disease that took his mother so early.
In late October 2011, my husband and I went to Houston to visit with the family. During our stay, Bobby and I planned to work together to finalize his college application; he had his heart set on Princeton. Just moments after we arrived, my brother-in-law informed us that Bobby had recently confessed to being a prescription drug addict and asked for help. He had recently stolen $8K from his dad’s account to buy medications on-line; but now that the money was gone, he was out of options. We were stunned and devastated to say the least.
We had no idea what to do. Justin’s father, Bobby’s uncle in New Jersey, begged us to take him to the hospital or call the police, as he wished he would have done for his son. Bobby refused to go to the hospital and foolishly, we worried that a police record could interfere with college acceptance. Instead, we took him for an evaluation at an out-patient rehab center. The evaluation took half the day. Because of HIPPA laws, the addiction specialist could not tell us what she learned from Bobby about his use, but did tell us that he was one of the heaviest users she had ever encountered and was already far down the road of addiction. He would need, at minimum, 30-day residential (in-patient) treatment.
Although Bobby told us he was an addict, we had absolutely no idea how serious the problem was until that moment. Yes, in retrospect, there were signs of drug abuse that we attributed to teen behavior, but it was impossible to reconcile this expert opinion with the person we thought we knew. Unlike Justin, whose world fell apart because of addiction, Bobby was functioning almost as usual.
By 8pm that evening, we completed all the paper work for his admission to the residential facility which was to take place at 8am the next day. Tragically, Bobby didn’t make it through those 12 hours.
On October 25th, at 6am, his sister and I found him dead in his bed. He took heaping doses of some of his father’s accessible medication and sent a text to a friend. He couldn’t imagine loving anything more than his drugs. Bobby died just a little over three months after Justin.
These young deaths have devastated and forever-altered every member in our family as well as members of Justin’s New Jersey community, Bobby’s Texas community and our own community here in Maryland. Prior to these events, I had absolutely no idea that prescription drug abuse was an epidemic in our country. Even though I have a master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins and worked in psychiatric drug development for over 10 years, I had no understanding of the dangers of prescription drugs, how addictive they are, and how, even with one dose, they can kill. I had no comprehension of how different and dangerous the ‘drug landscape’ is today as compared to when I was a teenager in the 80s.
In an effort to help save other families and communities from this horror, I am committed to raising awareness among both adults and children, because knowledge is the best form of prevention. I now know that prescription drug abuse is everyone’s problem because it doesn’t discriminate by race or socioeconomic status; everyone is at risk. I work voluntarily as a Parent Partner with The Partnership at Drugfree.org, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to help solve the problem of teen substance abuse. As a Parent Partner, I have access to scientific information, educational programs, and professional assistance. Please help me honor Justin and Bobby by allowing me to share these resources with you.
The real stories need to be heard throughout our counties and states. In order for this epidemic to start, we must begin in our own backyards. We must share our true stories on who this is effecting and what we can do to help protect our kids. If we all just do a little with awareness, prevention, safeguarding, we can and will make a difference!!
No Sugar-Coating the Devastation of Illicit Drugs
Posted on May 15, 2013 at 11:34 am
Heroin Task Force presents first public forum on prescription drug abuse
The heart-wrenching story of a school principal who lost his son to drugs and the first-person story of a woman’s heroin addiction gripped the attention of parents attending the first Community Forum on Prescription Drug Abuse presented by the Delaware County Heroin Task Force.
About 50 people attended the forum, presented May 9 at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center at Upper Darby High School. Headed by Delaware County Council and District Attorney Jack Whelan, the Heroin Task Force was formed in September, 2012, to raise awareness about the prescription drug and heroin epidemic impacting the nation and the county.
“This can happen to any good child and any A-plus student who has a great group of friends and comes from a great family,” cautioned Dr. Richard Dunlap, whose son, Tim, lost his battle with addition in 2009. “Tim was a good kid, who made poor decisions.”
The forum was offered by the Heroin Task Force to educate the public on this growing epidemic. Members of the panel included District Attorney Whelan, Dr. Dunlap, Delaware County Council members Mario J. Civera Jr. and Dave White, Executive Director Marianne Grace, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood and Upper Darby Assistant Superintendent Daniel McGarry.
Panelists said it is becoming all too common that students, beginning in middle school, are using drugs. The problem often begins when a child or teen finds prescription drugs in their home which are no longer being used by a parent, sibling or relative. These prescription drugs are often pain killers such as Percocet and Vicodin.
Last year in Delaware County, there were 50 heroin-related deaths and a total of 119 drug-related deaths.
“This is a story we hear all too often in the District Attorney’s office,” said District Attorney Whelan. “It is also a story heard all too often in the Medical Examiner’s office as well.”
The forum started with a video detailing “Angela’s Story,” the harrowing true story of a young Delaware County woman who overcame her addiction to prescription drugs and heroin.
In a videotaped interview with a representative from the District Attorney’s office, “Angela” tells how her prescription drug addiction led to heroin use. She explained the effects prescription drugs had on her, how powerful her addiction was, the problems she faced, and the family she had lost at the time.
She explained how when she could no longer afford her prescription drug habit, she turned to heroin because it was cheaper, more effective and a quicker high.
Audience members were visibly moved by “Angela’s Story.” The woman finally sought help. She is now clean, sober and has her life back. Her simple words to people are: “Just don’t do drugs.”
Residents also heard from Dr. Dunlap, a father and principal at West Chester East High School, who detailed the impact on his family of losing their son, Tim, drugs.
As Dr. Dunlap spoke, Tim’s story was demonstrated to the audience with photographs of Tim at different stages of his life. Tim’s drug use started in sixth grade and escalated from there. When Tim graduated from high School, he attended West Chester University and “things only went downhill from there,” his father said.
Dr. Dunlap said there were increasing signs of drug use such as weight loss, slurred speech and a change in sleeping habits. The most defining incident was when Tim didn’t try out for the West Chester University football team when football was one of the reasons he attended the university. He later failed out of his freshman year of college.
Dr.Dunlap said his family tried to deal with this together, helping Tim through treatment and taking care of him every step of the way.
“My family’s lives were changed the day Tim died from his addiction. The year Tim died, 12 of his 13 closest friends put themselves in rehab for prescription drug use,” the father said.
Shortly after his son’s death, Dunlap began to speak to audiences, especially in schools, about his son’s addiction and how his family overcame their loss.
“This is not just an epidemic, this is a pandemic,” Dunlap said. “This is not just in the Upper Darby School District (where the forum was held), it’s everywhere and it’s your good kids, making poor decisions.”
The public forum is just one aspect of the education and awareness activities of the Delaware County Heroin Task Force. The Task Force offers the program, “Realities of Prescription Drugs and Heroin Abuse,” to all school communities. To schedule a presentation, school officials can contact the District Attorney’s office at 610-891-4163.
There is also an informational brochure, available from the Task Force or it can be downloaded from the Delaware County website at www.co.delaware.pa.us.
