Overdose Awareness Day Highlights Addiction Control Efforts
CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) -- Communities across the country took time out on Wednesday to mark International Overdose Awareness Day.
August 31st is set aside each year around the world in an effort to take the stigma off those addicted to drugs and back attempts to treat the problem.
Camden County Freeholder Director Lou Cappelli leads a task force looking at addiction for the past three years, and says they're done more than just talk about it.
"First of all we made sure that every police department in Camden County had Narcan, which is a drug that reverses an overdose," Cappelli told KYW Newsradio. "So far to date over 500 lives have been saved. We also have established a program that, once someone is saved by Narcan, that they're given vouchers for treatment to a provider in Camden County."
A quarter million dollars in government money is spent on that program. And while he says they're making progress, they could use some help.
"We have to put pressure on insurance companies," he said. "We have to put pressure on the medical community, on the pharmaceutical companies that seem to be inclined to hand out too many of these prescriptions. And we have to put our pressure on the federal government, which really has the resources to put behind this effort."
Cappelli believes the message is getting through, noting how New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has taken great strides in addressing the addiction problem. And the Presidential campaigns are also talking about dealing with drug abuse.