mycentraljersey.com: Prescription drugs seen as hook to opioid addiction

12/14/2017

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EAST BRUNSWICK - Prescription drug are often the gateway drug to addiction, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey told hundreds of residents at a panel discussion on opioid addiction Tuesday.

"Addiction starts at the pharmacy instead of the back alley,” Carey said at the Knock Out Opioid Abuse Town Hall hosted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey at the Jo Ann Magistro Performing Arts Center at Hammarskjold Middle School.  “Community forums like this where we work together are very important.”

Carey was among five panelists to participate in the event, the 13th town hall in a series organized by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey and the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey to focus on the link between prescription drug dependency and heroin abuse.

 

The discussion panel was moderated by 1450 WCTC host Bert Baron and included as speakers state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-19th District , Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin D- 18th District, Vanessa Vitolo, Victory Bay Recovery Center outreach coordinator and Bonnie Nolan, Woodbridge Township addiction services coordinator.

“There are no easy answers,” said Angelo Valente, Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey executive director. “It is necessary for all of us to work together as a community to try to come up with ways to eradicate this epidemic.”

In 2016, an estimated 2,000 people in New Jersey died of an opioid overdose. Throughout the country, more than 64,000 people died of drug overdoses.
Opioid addiction has emerged as a major issue in recent decades due to the over prescription and misuse of painkillers, which has been linked to increased heroin use.

 

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Wellspring Center for Prevention, the East Brunswick Alliance for the Prevention of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, East Brunswick Public Schools and 1450 WCTC served as collaborating partners for the town hall.

“This is an epidemic that has taken years to get to where it is today,” said Vitale, who serves as the chair of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. “This issue is not going away until enough people are in treatment and recovery and we began to reduce the demand.”