As a person in recovery, I'm grateful to the governor
Gov. Christie's strategically stage-managed rollout of what's being branded as his war on drug addiction may look to some like a lame-duck ploy.
Gov. Christie's strategically stage-managed rollout of what's being branded as his war on drug addiction may look to some like a lame-duck ploy.
Could be; once lofty, the guy's approval ratings have cratered to under 20 percent.
He's got just a year left in office to do something about it.
So by dramatically devoting much of his annual State of the State address to the laudable goal of fighting substance abuse, what's he got to lose?
Besides, Vermont governor Peter Shumlin used a similar occasion to declare such a war in 2014, gaining him national attention of the sort Christie once commanded effortlessly. And heaven knows there are plenty of New Jerseyans like me who are in recovery - or who are desperately trying to begin a sober life.
"Our friends are dying. Our neighbors are dying. Our children are dying . . . every day," Christie told a joint session of the legislature during his epic, occasionally emotional and exhaustively detailed speech Tuesday.
"Drug addiction is a disease. It is not a moral failing," he said.
Hear, hear.
"By treating the disease . . . we have a chance to save lives."
To do so, Christie said, the state is expanding the availability of treatment and continuing efforts he showcased in the 2016 State of the State address.
Those include recovery coaching programs; making treatment more affordable by increasing state reimbursement rates, and "sober living reforms."
He also highlighted the opening of a new treatment center in South Jersey founded by AJ Solomon, a recovering addict whose parents are state Supreme Court Associate Justice Lee Solomon and Dianne Solomon, commissioner of the state Board of Public Utilities.
Christie introduced the Haddonfield couple and their son during the speech and embraced them afterward.
"I want to commend Gov. Christie for making this a number one priority. The epidemic has reached every corner of the state," said Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr.
Cappelli hopes the new initiative will bolster programs such as the county's Operation SAL, which pays for detoxification and outpatient treatment services.
Patty DiRenzo, a recovery employment specialist with the county, lost her son Sal to a heroin overdose in 2010. Operation SAL is named for him.
"The immediate need is to give these kids a second chance," said DiRenzo, adding that she is heartened by the governor's support for assisting people in recovery to find work.
Seabrook House president Edward M. Diehl noted that the governor has long spoken about a friend whom he lost to addiction.
"The governor has acted like any caring person would," he said.
Diehl, whose facility offers inpatient services in Cumberland County and outpatient programs elsewhere in the state, also said he "welcomes" Christie's pledge to "end insurance company runarounds" that are roadblocks to treatment.
Before Christmas, the governor spoke at an addiction-focused vigil at the Statehouse, and his media-savvy office released powerful photos and a moving video of the event.
Tuesday's speech should provide many such YouTube moments; a leak of the speech to NBC News helped draw attention as well.
But so what if there was plenty of state-of-the-art calibration of optics, as has been the case since the beginning of the Christie administration?
As a person in recovery, I'm grateful to the governor for what is clearly also a deeply personal and not merely political, commitment.
"I think he gets it," DiRenzo said.
When a tough-talker at the top like Christie understands the nature of the beast that is addiction, it can "mean so much" for those on the front lines, DiRenzo added.
She's right.
And so is the governor.
856-779-3845 @inqkriordan