On Thursday, New Jersey's Division of Consumer affairs is scheduled to hold a public hearing on proposed new rules restricting payments and perks given to doctors by drug companies.
How has the way your office is dealing with the opioid crisis changed over the last 18 months?
Porrino: This problem’s been a focus of the good and hardworking people of the Department of Law and Public Safety for quite a while. But I realized that our office was in many respects siloed as it related to our response.
We had the criminal lawyers prosecuting drug dealers and drug rings and doctors gone bad. We had Consumer Affairs chasing indiscriminate prescribers in civil licensure proceedings. We had rulemaking authority. We had State Police resources monitoring the data on overdoses and conducting investigations. We had the prescription monitoring program.
We formed a working group with representation from each of those constituencies in the fall of 2016. The first meeting (was) in the basement of my house on a Friday afternoon.
The governor was already very focused on this. I knew there was more we could do. We started trying to collaborate and force-multiply the knowledge and experience, which was a lot. Out of that came better coordination.
The map above shows all the fentanyl-related deaths in New Jersey in 2016. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, has been linked to a spike in overdoses, and the state has started going after manufacturers, accusing them of pushing doctors to prescribe it for things it was never meant to treat.
Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media
Is New Jersey making progress in the opioid fight?
Porrino: I think the answer to that question is yes, and perhaps we’ll have some data in the coming months to demonstrate some progress.
People’s awareness in the state was really changed after the governor’s State of the State. That’s my perception. Others could disagree. Doctors were talking about it. Articles were being written. Awareness is a big part of making progress in the fight.
This problem has festered over many years. It didn’t happen overnight. And the solutions, as numerous as they are, are going to take a significant amount of time to grab hold.
If we prevent someone from becoming a heroin addict today, that won’t make an impact on the overdose numbers for years. But I don’t think this problem is going away in the short term.
How confident are you that the staff this administration leaves behind is going to be able to carry the flag forward into January when there's a new administration?
Porrino: I think that leadership really will make a difference here. The knowledge is there, the engines are running, the skill exists.
Without that focus, I think we could stand to lose ground. Now, I am confident that, given where we are now, that the important initiatives will continue. I don’t see how anyone else comes into this job, given the extent of the public conversation on it, and can afford not to be focused on this.