Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Chairman Joseph F. Vitale released the following statement today in regards to testimony from the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (GCADA) on their recent report entitled Confronting New Jersey’s New Drug Problem: A Strategic Action Plan to Address a Burgeoning Heroin/Opiate Epidemic Among Adolescents and Young Adults:
“After today’s testimony from the Governor’s Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse regarding New Jersey’s prescription drug and heroin epidemic, it is abundantly clear we must take swift action to begin to solve a public health crisis that is leading young adults to a path of drug abuse. Their testimony once again demonstrates that young people are first introduced to opiates in their own medicine cabinets, but when the supply dries up, many look to dangerous alternatives like heroin. This is not a crisis that is going be solved with quick fixes, but will take long-tern strategies to help reduce the prevalence of addiction. But we must begin to take action, because we simply cannot continue to lose young men and women to these horrific drugs.”