Christie, in Brick, Announces Launch of Heroin 'Antidote' Pilot

Saying the war on drugs is "failing," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced that police departments in Ocean and Monmouth counties would begin equipping officers with Narcan, a medication that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opiate drug overdose.

Police officers in three New Jersey towns – Seaside Heights, Surf City and Barnegat Township – will all be carrying the medication by Thursday with all of Ocean and Monmouth counties' police officers carrying the potentially life-saving medication within the next two weeks.

"Nothing is more important than protecting and saving lives," said Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni, who gave sobering statistics on Monmouth County's 70 heroin deaths last year compared with 11 homicides and vehicular homicides.

"You know what’s really killing people in our communities? It’s heroin and pill use," he said.

In Ocean County, there were more than 100 overdose deaths in 2013 – the largest of any county in the state.

Christie met with Gramiccioni and Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato before addressing local officials and volunteers at the Herbertsville Fire Company in Brick Township, one of the municipalities whose police department will soon be equipped with Narcan.

"It is time to stop stigmatizing those who have fallen to the illness of addiction," said Christie. "Most people start this through a mistake, a mistake in judgment, and who among us hasn’t made one of those. We cannot consider those people disposable."

For West Long Branch Police Chief Lawrence L. Mihlon, saving the lives of people overdosing on heroin is personal. His experience with the drug culminated with a call his department received last year.

"The call came from my house, because it was my son," he said. "I hear things in the press, that they should die. Well, not if it’s your kid. And it could be your kid."

Christie said the Narcan program will likely spread to all of New Jersey's counties quickly, though the pilot is only occurring in Ocean and Monmouth counties. Those counties have some of the state's highest heroin overdose rates.

Coronato has led the charge to equip emergency responders with the medication so they can administer it to overdose victims. Members of nearly all of Ocean County's police departments recently trained with the drug, which is inhaled by an overdose victim and temporarily restores the ability to breathe.

"The greatest social good is not always served by jail time," Christie said.