New Jersey is still being rocked by the opioid crisis. Years of new policies and dedicated funding to combat both the illicit drug market and overdose deaths appear no match for the amount of fentanyl that’s poisoning drug supplies. The synthetic opioid is cheaper to make than heroin and several times more powerful; it’s 50 times stronger than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the latest available data, from 2019, fentanyl contributed to the deaths of more than 2,200 New Jerseyans.
“What started out as an oxycodone or hydrocodone prescription opioid problem, with some heroin, really has turned into an all-encompassing fentanyl epidemic, when it comes to deaths,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chair of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
