New Jersey Addiction Resources New Jersey Addiction Resources | Page 2

was easier to deliver and cut down on the risk of using syringes. This could not
have been more of a saving grace for the state at such a devastating time.
More Addicts Dying From
Opioids
Currently, drug overdose deaths are currently on pace to become the sixth-
leading cause of death in New Jersey in 2018. As of April, there have already
been 765 suspected deaths already recorded in 2018. This means the death rate
has surpassed illnesses and disease such as the flu, Alzheimer’s disease, breast
cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer. In addition to homicide,
suicide, and car accidents combined.
“We’re on pace to far surpass the figures from 2016 and 2017,” said Gurbir
Grewal, the state attorney general. “It shows we can’t be complacent.”
However, one way the state of New Jersey has tried to get more people trusting
police officers who respond to a 911 call about a heroin overdose in progress is
to offer immunity from arrest to the people making the call, even if they are found
with heroin in their possession. The “Good Samaritan Emergency Response Act”
signaled a reversal of position by Governor Chris Christie, who had initially
vetoed a similar bill because it did little to offer any kind of deterrent to the larger
issue of substance abuse. The result has become statewide legislation that
protects people calling 911 from being arrested or prosecuted for having used
drugs, which proponents say will encourage more people to go to the authorities