Need Thursday 3.19.2020 4pm

The Honorable Valerie Vainieri Huttle

District 37 - New Jersey Assembly

1 Engle Street Suite 108

Englewood, NJ 07631

Dear Ms. Huttle:

N. J. Assembly Bill 3288 introduced by you on February 25, 2020 Is a logical and critical step for reducing drug overdose deaths. This thoughtful legislation just makes sense. It is a reasonable and humane requirement for first-responder transport of potential overdose victims to hospital emergency rooms even if an on-site opioid antidote has already been administered. I thank you and hugely and gratefully support A3288 based on my professional experience.

On-site emergency action by first responders is clearly insufficient. The N.J. Attorney General reported over 3,000 drug tragic overdose deaths in 2019. By demanding transport, this legislation assures access to immediate emergency medical intervention and life-saving treatment. Assembly Bill 3288 requires what is currently missing: a legal mandate that an overdose victim be taken to a hospital facility. Lacking this urgently-needed step, more victims will be left to die.

For almost 20 years, I have worked in successively more responsible positions as a substance use counselor at Integrity House in Newark. Addiction, based solidly reliable statistical data, knows no ZIP Code, cultural limits, age, or economic class. New Jersey’s raging opioid crisis makes the passage of A3288 somewhat of a “no brainer.”

If your Chief of Staff Katie Wertheimer wishes to contact me for oral or written testimony to help move NJ A3288 out of the Health Committee and on to a floor vote, I am available at (973) 715-7262 or at [email protected].

Respectfully,