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Despite a revolutionary law repressing doctors' prescription habits, injecting tens of millions of dollars into treatment and making aggressive arrests and prosecutions, New Jersey has failed to halt the steady rise in overdose deaths.
In fact, it's worse. New Jersey is losing 3,000 people this year, a record number. And this would be the fourth year in a row to break the annual record, according to state data.
Former Governor Jim McGreevey, his New Jersey Reentry Corporation and national drug treatment experts on Tuesday issued a report to Statehouse proposing a plan that they believe helped other states to stop the rise in the number of dead.
The problem is the way we provide the treatment, according to the report "A modern plague". The 28-day standard detoxification model followed by three months of outpatient treatment is neither long nor transparent enough. Whenever a person dependent on heroin, fentanyl or other prescription drugs goes on to a new recovery phase, most relapses.
The report states that readmissions now account for nearly 90% of all patients enrolled in treatment programs.
McGreevey said in an interview before the release of the report that families usually can not navigate the bureaucratic system to help direct their loved ones.
"When families are the most fragile, this is not the time when they can investigate a network" for treatment. "This should be done for them," said McGreevey.
"We can not ask families to navigate through hell."
The report highlights Vermont's six-year strategy of creating a publicly-managed system that names a treatment facility to guide the patient through the recovery process, which the US General believes should last 12 years. month.
More than 8 people die every day from a drug overdose at N.J.
This treatment plan must offer all the tools available: intensive outpatient consultations, recovery coaches, housing and law enforcement assistance, access to medication-assisted treatment, and a scientifically proven method of relapse prevention.
"MAT", or a drug-assisted treatment, can "mimic the effects of opioids" or "block the highs resulting from opioid abuse," according to the report. "Heroin overdose deaths have decreased by 37% after the commercialization of buprenorphine in Baltimore," according to the report.
Yet only one-quarter of all state care providers offer drug-wizard treatment, according to the report.
And half of the providers offer a mentoring program, 60% refer patients to social services; According to the report, 40% offer employment advice or training and 45% offer housing assistance.
The report calls for the creation of a new standard of care at the state level and a treatment program in every county. Reentry would create a model program to show how it would work.
Senator Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Social Services and Seniors, agreed with the report and drafted a bill that he will introduce in the Next 30 days to make the model available here.
The Murphy administration is "engaged in the idea," said Vitale, and he will work with the governor's staff to develop a bill that Murphy would sign. "They are in agreement, understand and fully support (we need) a much better care system."
Vitale said he was expecting some doctors and other medical providers to oppose reliance on drug-assisted treatments because they could see one drug exchange for another.
"It's ridiculous and it has to stop," Vitale said. "All recommendations in the report and the bill will be guided by the evidence."
"The long-term strategy is to be in a recovery phase, not to drain the system, and to ensure that people are recovering for a long time will exponentially increase their chances of recovery," added Vitale.
"This report is the best thing I have seen in four years," said Vitale, who has worked with Governor Chris Christie to pass laws on the opioid crisis. "It's a coherent plan and we're going to work on it soon."
More than 9,500 people in New Jersey died of a drug overdose from January 2014 to June 2018, according to the report.
The problem was exacerbated by the spread, about two years ago, of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more addictive than heroin. Last year, fentanyl killed 1,379 people, overtaking heroin for the first time, with 1,132 deaths, Prosecutor General Gubir Grewal said on Tuesday.
The Reentry Corporation, a social service agency that works with people who are starting a new life after leaving prison, has consulted a plethora of heavyweights in the addictions field to develop recommendations and gain support.
Douglas Marlowe, Chief of Science, Law and Policy of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, endorsed the report's recommendations.
"Third-party payers, public or private, generally only approve short treatment regimens of 28 or 30 days, while the research clearly shows that 90 days are a minimum threshold for therapeutic benefits of treatment and that 6 to 12 recovery, "said Marlowe in a written statement.
"Treatment agencies have largely focused their programs around this ill-advised funding structure, leading to costly admissions to revolving door treatment."
"I strongly support the treatment and prevention recommendations in your report, which, if implemented, would go a long way toward public health and public safety," wrote Marlowe.
McGreevey also invited Kathleen Foster and other founders of Parent to Parent, a support network made up of families with direct experience of the opioid epidemic.
Foster said that his son, Christian, died of an overdose at age 27, while waiting for a vacancy in a treatment program. He had two 28-day and 21-day detox programs, but that was not enough.
A long-term treatment regime is "crucial," she said. "We can no longer afford to lose more to this plague."
New Jersey operates a 2444 hotline, 1.844.ReachNJ (1.844.732.2465) that will put you in touch with organizations that provide addiction treatment and family support services. .
The report can be found here.
Stephen Stirling, NJ Advance Media Staff Editor, contributed to this report.
Susan K. Livio can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
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