Fentanyl and heroin are both dangerous drugs killing many New Jersey addicts. It's encouraging that people who can make a difference are acting accordingly.
The highly-publicized death of Prince in April attached a face to a grim reality New Jersey law-enforcement officials have been confronting over the last few years.
The deadly menace known as fentanyl is killing the state's residents, and the toll is rising at a terrifying pace.
An autopsy released earlier this month reported that an overdose of the potent opioid was responsible for the death of the pop star who transformed the music world.
In New Jersey, 150 people died from fentanyl use in the first six months of 2015 - eight times the monthly rate recorded in 2013.
The toxic substance is described as up to 50 times more potent than the heroin you can buy on the street. Ingested, snorted, smoked or absorbed through the skin, it often comes laced into heroin, producing a lethal one-two punch.
Deaths from fentanyl are skyrocketing in N.J.
As police and mental-health experts gear up to attack this new enemy, township officials in one Mercer County township are launching a program they hope will increase the options available for area residents struggling with heroin and opioid addiction.
The Robbinsville Community Addiction Recovery Effort (CARE) lets police officers provide resources, access to treatment and guidance from a trained counselor to anyone arrested in the municipality in connection with opiate use.
Technically, this is not a new initiative. Township police have been offering this type of support since the beginning of the year. Eight of the 19 people to whom they reached out accepted and have received treatment.
Police provide the counselors, who work with participants in a safe, private setting to start them on the road to recovery.
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The CARE plan expands on those efforts, with the help of a local task force whose members represent non-profits such as Recovery Advocates of America, City of Angels and InFocus Urgent Care.
Other initiatives throughout the state are recognizing that heroin and opiate addiction is not something that exists in a vacuum, and that law-enforcement alone cannot stem the plague.
In January, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police endorsed a program Hunterdon County launched in 2014, now spreading across the Garden State.
Known as START - Steps to Action Recovery and Treatment - it provides drug users leaving police custody or hospital emergency rooms with a sheaf of information listing resources to help them re-calibrate their lives drug-free.
Addiction is so much more than a law-enforcement problem. It's also a mental health issue, one that demands a combination of public awareness, compassionate treatment, community support and public awareness.
It's encouraging that people who can make a difference are finally realizing that, and acting accordingly.
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