Any city in New Jersey now can have a syringe access program. Gov. Chris Christie today signed the bill to expand the program beyond five pilot cities. The governor said the programs provide lifesaving access to vital services. His action comes on International Overdose Awareness Day. NJTV News Correspondent Briana Vannozzi was in Hamilton Township with more on this.
Vannozzi: Good evening, Michael. Across the state and around the country vigils are being held tonight, like the one inside the Knottingham Ballroom now. This is to raise awareness of overdose and to reduce stigma. This comes as New Jersey learns it will share a pot of $26 million in federal grants. The state’s portion will be about $11 million to help combat and stem New Jersey’s drug addiction crisis.
“This is my son right here.”
Laurie Latham never thought she’d be visiting her son’s photo on a memorial wall. Now she devotes her time making sure other parents won’t have to.
“My son, Tom Latham, he was 24 and he died of a heroin overdose Nov. 28, 2012,” she said.
She and an all-volunteer group make up City of Angels, a grassroots addiction recovery program in Mercer County.
“In Mercer County in 2014 we had 38 overdose deaths. There’s been a lot done in the last few years, but in 2015 we had 55 deaths so the numbers are going up,” said City of Angels Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council Kevin Meara.
In the first half of 2015, New Jersey had 723 drug-related deaths. More than half of those, 415, were from heroin alone. The highest concentrations continued to be in Camden County, which had 85 deaths, Ocean with 76 and Monmouth County with 64 overdose related deaths.
“It’s the only disease that is not treated at a medical facility, a hospital, and when you are treated you’re given a certificate if you get 28 days help, you’re given a certificate and told to go to 90 meetings in 90 days. You’re not even asked to come back for a checkup. So we need a seismic shift in how we’re thinking and how we’re thinking about this disease before more lives are saved,” Meara said.
He’s working on a project called Code Blue to provide emergency ambulatory detox because he says New Jersey has the purest and deadliest heroin in the country.
“When City of Angels started in 2009, we had about 65 percent or more had commercial insurance. Now 90 percent of the kids that we help have no insurance or they have Medicaid and that is a barrier to access to treatment,” Meara said.
“Every time that you take that packet it’s Russian Roulette. At some point in time it’s not if, it’s when is that body going to shut down and you’re going to be part of the statistic,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato.
Ocean and Monmouth counties have often been referred to as ground zero in the opioid epidemic.
“Last year we had 118 overdose deaths in 2015. Unfortunately, as of today, we have met that mark, meaning that we have 118 overdose deaths and we still have four more months left,” Coronato said. “People have kind of a misnomer thinking that they’re taking heroin when it truly is a cocktail. And most of the packages, most of the drugs that they’re taking a cocktail and most of the time it’s containing fentanyl.”
Fentanyl is a drug so potent it’s 100 times more powerful than morphine. Skin contact can cause an overdose. And even naloxone or Narcan, which was deployed 285 times in 2015 in Ocean County, can’t reverse the effects.
“People are driving right down through our highways, they’re going to a hub city where there’s unfortunately an abundance of drugs, and they’re going all the way down to places in Ocean County, like Little Egg Harbor to I’ve seen them all the way up in Old Bridge. And they’re driving an hour, hour and 20 minutes for pure, inexpensive opiates to support their habit,” said Detective Scott Kivet of the Robbinsville Township Police Department.
“I think it just brings to light what everyone is going through. I think most people day-to-day still look at this disease in a way that they shouldn’t. There’s still a stigma and these kids are good kids, these people are good people. They’re someone’s baby, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter,” said Maryann Meara, City of Angels Board of Trustee chair.
Vannozzi: I’m joined by Mark Manning, Hamilton Township resident. You are the father of an overdose victim. First of all, thank you for taking the time to share such a personal and such a tough topic. You said earlier every day is awareness day for your family.
Manning: Yes, every day. Losing a son, losing a child to this disease is unimaginable pain that you go through every day. But time just makes you more familiar with the pain and you’re able to live and be a husband and a father to your other sons as well as be a husband to your wife. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know how I would get through this.
Vannozzi: Your son, Christopher, he had a long battle?
Manning: About eight years of struggling. He went through ups and downs with addiction. Many recovery centers, going through that part of it with him. Consumed as a father just as much as he was consumed with the drugs to fix my son and I was never able to. And that day on Aug. 5 at 4:10 p.m. when I came home to take him to work and opened his bedroom door, my world was shattered. It’s unimaginable pain that I pray that no one else has to go through. But I give all the credit to my wife and my four other sons that get me through this. To go on and to be able to help other families. I’m honored to be out here because there are many other families in there right now that you could be talking to, so I’m honored to represent them and be out here with you and answer your questions.
Vannozzi: You said to me earlier that you just pick one foot up, you just keep moving forward. How do you do that as a family?
Manning: You do it. I can’t explain it. Losing a child, it’s unimaginable. I keep saying unimaginable because I can’t explain it to you. No one that hasn’t lost their child doesn’t understand it, OK? Especially to this disease. These are good kids. Your children, our children. They were athletes, artists, they can do anything in the world and this disease shred it, everything, all their talents, relationships and everything along the way. And unfortunately here we are right now.
Vannozzi: Thank you Mark on this national awareness day. Mark Manning, thank you very much for joining us.
Manning: Thank you.