FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2020

Contact: Natalie Golub, Media Coordinator, 973-382-4560, natalie@drugfreenj.org

 PDFNJ Unveils New Campaign Raising Awareness About Vital Family Communication and Masking Amid Pandemic

MILLBURN — The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ) has unveiled a new media campaign raising awareness of how to keep families safe from two life-threatening public concerns facing all New Jerseyans – Covid-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic.

“We are learning how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacted the opioid epidemic,” said Angelo Valente, Executive Director at PDFNJ. “The CDC has recommended an important way to stop the spread of the coronavirus is to wear a mask. We wanted to create a campaign that would address this important message, as well as bring awareness to the surging cases of substance use disorder and how families can protect their children.”

The pandemic has changed lifestyles over the course of the last six months. Increased stress, anxiety and isolation have caused overdose deaths to surge in New Jersey and across the country. In 2019, more than 3,000 people in New Jersey died of a drug overdose, a majority of which involved some form of opioid. In 2020, this number of New Jersey overdose deaths has risen 17 percent.

PDFNJ research has shown that communication between a parent and children is a key component to preventing youth from experimenting with substance use. Parents who talk to their children for at least 15 minutes a day have children who are 67 percent less likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol. 

This new campaign is featured PATH trains, as well as at rest stops throughout New Jersey.

Residetns of New Jersey can see this new campaign on path trains, as well as, New Jersey turnpike and parkway service plazas.

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Best known for its statewide substance use prevention advertising campaign, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is a private not-for-profit coalition of professionals from the communications, corporate and government communities whose collective mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs in New Jersey through media communication.  To date, more than $100 million in broadcast time and print space has been donated to the Partnership’s New Jersey campaign, making it the largest public service advertising campaign in New Jersey’s history. Since its inception, the Partnership has garnered 180 advertising and public relations awards from national, regional and statewide media organizations.