Published on October 24, 2017
Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp joined New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal and community activists in a recent discussion in Franklin Lakes, Bergen County on combatting opioid and heroin addiction. Approximately 100 people were in attendance at Ramapo High School. The program was sponsored by the Franklin Lakes Municipal Alliance and was moderated by Mayor Frank Bivona.
Attorney General Porrino urged parents in the audience to help their children make the right decisions about drugs. Prosecutor Grewal highlighted the need for parents and students to talk to their doctors about obtaining less powerful alternatives to opioids. Experts agree that addiction often starts when patients are proscribed powerful opioids for pain. When I am speaking to students in the community I tell them, Just don't take those pills,' ' said Patty Trava, a community liaison who lost her daughter to heroin. The extent of the epidemic is well established. More individuals died from drug overdoses in the United States last year than the 58,000 Americans killed during the Vietnam War. Morris County is not immune. There have been 68 drug overdose deaths in Morris County so far this year, which already exceeds the total for 2016.