The program seeks to stop overdoses in hotels, motels

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) – The goal is to save lives.

The Burlington County District Attorney's Office announced this week a program to reduce opioid overdoses among hotel and motel patrons.

Operation Safe Overnight not only aims to save lives, but also to strengthen control activities in the approximately 75 hotels and motels in Burlington County.

The properties will receive free naloxone kits, offered by Virtua. Naloxone is the generic name for Narcan, a drug designed to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

"On February 9, three Toms River entrepreneurs died of a heroin overdose at a Voorhees hotel," said Attorney Scott Coffina on Wednesday at a press conference at The ML, in Mount Laurel. "It's a heavy price, probably due to a particularly deadly heroin lot that the three men shared.Unployingly, we had at least 15 deadly overdoes in Burlington County hotels and motels." in 2018. "

Coffina said that the introduction of fentanyl, "50 times more potent than heroin", turned the current epidemic into "essentially a game of Russian roulette". At the national level, said the prosecutor, motels and hotels are exposed to a higher risk of overdose, while the drug epidemic is raging.

"This innovative initiative represents another approach that we are integrating into our efforts to save as many lives as possible from this deadly scourge," added Coffina.

As part of this new initiative, the Gang, Firearms and Narcotics Prosecutor's Working Group has also placed hotels and motels at the heart of its investigation and enforcement activities. the law in 2018, the office said.

Hotel employees joined local law enforcement during a drug education and training program on Wednesday. The three-hour session included the introduction of the program and the opioid crisis; a demonstration of naloxone on a manikin; and a roundtable with Bordentown law enforcement officials, Maple Shade, Mount Laurel and the prosecutor's office.

Hotel employees learned to identify people who could be overdosed and to protect themselves from exposure to dangerous drugs while keeping the rooms and common areas of the building.

The prosecutor's office said NJ Cares' statistics show that there were 135 presumed fatal overdoses in Burlington County this year, which is poised to surpass the 143 deadly overdose of the year last. Naloxone has been deployed more than 770 times in the county this year.

"Opioids kill 175 people every day in the United States," Deputy Attorney Michael Angermeier said. This high death toll is similar to an 11/09 event, 20 to 30 times a year in the country, he said.

Mount Laurel police detective, Sean Bristow, said that because of the proximity of Interstate 295, the New Jersey Turnpike Highway and other major highways , "we are a hub in this region". Prostitution and drug trafficking are the most serious crimes in hotels and motels, he said.

"The overdoses in hotels have just gotten bigger," said Bristow. "We use Narcan quite often, it seems to get worse and worse."

Detective Steve Laramie of the prosecutor's office explained how to use naloxone to resuscitate an overdose victim. The office provided hotel workers with naloxone kits provided by Virtua.

Coffina thanked the health system for establishing a partnership with this initiative.

"We are very grateful for Virtua's enthusiastic support in our efforts to save lives in Burlington County, not only through Safe Overnight, but also by supporting the provision of naloxone to our municipal police services," he said. said Coffina.

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Information from: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, N.J.), http://www.courierpostonline.com/