New Jersey is still gripped by an opioid drug crisis but officials can’t agree on the best solution, according to a group of advocates who met at The College of New Jersey Wednesday.

Ami Kachalia of the ACLU said, “New Jersey is simultaneously attempting two things at once, kind of to no avail — right? On the one hand, we’re like, “Criminalize, criminalize, criminalize. Tough on crime. Law and order.” And on the other hand, “Public health. Harm reduction. Compassion.”

In 2012, New Jersey logged about 1,200 drug overdose deaths. The numbers have climbed steadily, peaking at more than 3,100 a couple of years ago. Fentanyl remains a powerful and deadly problem, prompting calls to toughen legal penalties. At the same time, New Jersey is also opening new harm reduction centers to offer needle exchanges, addiction treatment and referrals in 14 of 21 counties.

“So we know further criminalization does not work. That’s how we got here in the first place. So we can’t arrest our way out of this crisis,” said Marleina Ubel, senior policy advisor for NJ Policy Perspective.

Paterson activist and recovering addict James Brown agreed. “Every time I dealt with the police, I went to jail. Every time I went to the police, they checked my name for warrants. Every time I went to the police, they wanted to pat me down and see if I had some drugs,” he said.

Tougher laws simply drive up incarceration, particularly for people of color, and take them out of the health care system, Kachalia said, who noted the number one parole violation in New Jersey is a positive drug test.

Over the next decade, New Jersey is slated to receive more than $1 billion in opioid settlement money. Advocates recommend that it not be spent on policing, but rather invested in communities hardest hit by the war on drugs.