Christie turns focus to addiction - again

TRENTON - Between frequent trips out of state campaigning for Republicans, Gov. Christie has been spending much of his time at home talking about one topic: addiction.

In one month, Christie has held events focused on addiction on four of the nine days he has appeared publicly in New Jersey - including Thursday, when he announced formation of a task force to improve prevention and treatment.

"We need to continue to make change and deal with addiction differently," Christie said at a news conference at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Trenton, where he said he had met with several women recovering from addiction.

Repeating a message he has delivered often in recent weeks, Christie said, "Everyone deserves a second chance."

While treatment advocates applaud the governor's attention to the issue, some say more action - and funding - are needed.

"Everyone is happy it's getting attention," said Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "But how this is actually going to translate into people getting help is another question."

Christie's new task force will be led by Pastor Joe Carter of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where the governor recently held an event to raise awareness about addiction, and will include former Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey, who works in prisoner reentry and has been a public ally of Christie's in calling for greater emphasis on treating addiction.

Christie cabinet members in charge of law enforcement, health, and corrections also will serve on the task force, as will an addiction treatment provider, a family physician, and a police chief whose son overdosed.

The group is tasked with developing strategies to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction and to improve treatment and prevention efforts.

Christie did not specify a deadline for its work, saying he would work with the group to find solutions to "help people reclaim their lives."

This week, Christie held a news conference about efforts to expand and increase participation in the state's prescription monitoring program, which lets doctors check whether a patient has previously been prescribed controlled drugs, such as painkillers.

Christie previously expanded the state's drug court program for nonviolent offenders, adding an extra $4.5 million for the program to the budget.

He also has taken steps to equip police with a drug that reverses the effects of a heroin overdose, and advocated for a law intended to keep low-level offenders from being jailed before trial because they cannot afford bail.

More funding is needed to improve access to treatment, Scotti said, and not just for people in the drug court system.

Access to treatment also was a concern raised by some providers at the recent event Christie held at the Newark church.

At that event, Christie said, "We have to make treatment more available to everybody," but did not elaborate on whether the state would take specific steps to do that.

While his focus on addiction is not new, Christie's approach to the issue is garnering wider attention as he considers a run for president in 2016. The governor gave a round of interviews to national media outlets following the Newark church event.

"Talking about this issue is popular on both sides of the aisle," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "There's public support for addressing drug addiction, which obviously has no partisan bias. And so certainly, this is a political benefit."

On other topics, Christie said Thursday that decisions on whether to allow same-sex marriage should be left to states rather than the federal government.

"I do not believe this is something that should be imposed from the U.S. Supreme Court down to the states," Christie said.

On Monday, the Supreme Court let stand lower-court rulings that allowed gay marriage in five states.

Christie has said he is against gay marriage, which became legal in New Jersey last year following a state court ruling that allowed same-sex couples to wed. The administration appealed, but dropped its challenge after the state Supreme Court said it would not halt marriages pending the case's outcome.