Ken Serrano , @KenSerranoAPP

As one of the steps to prevent addiction, NJ Governor Chris Christie highlighted a program where people could turn in unused prescription medications. THOMAS P. COSTELLO

TOMS RIVER - Less than a month after taking on a new role leading a national commission battling the opioid epidemic, Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday came to Toms River to tout one of the tools — started in New Jersey — for fighting drug abuse.

In an appearance at Toms River Police Department headquarters, Christie made a renewed pitch for prescription drug dropoff sites — places to dispose of unused medications safely. It was hardly a new endeavor.

In the fall of 2009, law enforcement officials and anti-drug advocates conjured up such dumping stations in a bid to counteract “pharm parties” where leftover prescription medicines are abused.

“Don’t leave the temptation in your home within arm’s length of your children and other family members,” said Christie, who is chairman of the national Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

To prevent water pollution, the governor further advised, don't flush pills down the toilet.

The New Jersey effort grew into the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, which is Saturday. Drug abuse experts have long seen unused prescription pain medicines — of the sort kept in the typical medicine cabinet after a dental procedure or surgery — as a threshold for the abuse of heroin and other opioids. 

Last October, 366 tons of prescription drugs were collected nationwide at over 5,200 sites operated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement agencies. Some 3,500 tons of prescription drugs have been collected in the 12 prior take-back events.

People looking to unload prescription drugs the right way have an easier way to do it in New Jersey this year. REACHNJ.gov now guides people on where to bring unused prescription drugs throughout the state. Project Medicine Drop, run by the Division of Consumer Affairs, includes 212 stationary sites and 148 mobile sites. Walgreens Safe Medicine Disposal program offers another 17 that REACH NJ will guide people to.

Christie, who is in his last year in office, used Wednesday's stage to highlight other efforts to fight heroin addiction and the growing danger it poses.

Overdoses, he said, took the lives of more people last year in the United States than AIDS during its peak in 1995.

“Think about what the response of America was in 1995. We had national institutes of health and every private pharmaceutical company with the government’s support struggling to get treatments – not cures – treatments to extend the lives of people who suffered from HIV and AIDS,” Christie said. “I don’t get, feel the same sense of urgency in this country about this problem.”

LEGISLATION: New opioid law would put NJ out front

He noted that stigma hindered treatment for both HIV and AIDS and opioid addiction as well.

“People considered AIDS, if you remember, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic as something people did to themselves,” Christie said.  “We have the same feeling today about drug abuse — If you never tried it in the first place you wouldn’t have these problems. We rejected that approach with HIV/AIDS and we need today to reject that approach on the treatment of drug abuse.”

Christie took a swipe at efforts to legalize marijuana in New Jersey, saying the $100 million in tax benefits that advocates of legalization say the state would reap would pale in comparison to the cost of drug problems that would follow, he said.

“If you tried marijuana between the ages of 12 and 17, you are 10 times more likely to be addicted to another drug within the 10 years after that than if you don’t,” Christie said. “Are we really going to risk the lives of our children and young adults in this state and give them a greater chance at addiction for $100 million?”

Other points Christie raised: