Freeholder Board Supports Federal Prescription Monitoring Program

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(Camden) Taking innovative steps to stem the tide of the heroin and opioid epidemic, Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli and the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force, are supporting the regional sharing of the prescription drug monitoring program by Congressmen Donald Norcross and Pat Meehan.

“For the overwhelming majority of individuals suffering in the throes of addiction- prescription narcotics has become the gateway to heroin use,” Cappelli said. “Monitoring the volume and patients’ intake carefully from a direct database that can be shared by medical professionals will create significant progress in stopping this disease before it can start. Furthermore, geography or state borders should not hinder that information sharing.”

According to the Center for Disease Control, three out of every four heroin users starts their battle by taking prescription drugs. Seventy-five percent of individuals battling their disease started on legal narcotics underscoring the need for this monitoring program.