State and National Experts to Focus on Race and the Opioid Crisis in Upcoming Webinar

PDFNJ and New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to Host 6th Webinar of 2022

MILLBURN, NJ, June 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Experts will continue to discuss the intersection of race and the statewide and national opioid epidemic in the next webinar of Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series, presented by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ) and the Office of the New Jersey Coordinator of Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES), which is responsible for overseeing addiction-fighting efforts across the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.

The webinar, “The Opioid Epidemic and the Impact of Race Part II,” will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 16. The presentation will feature Dr. Dara Kass, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Regional Director for Region 2; Tanagra Melgarejo, National Learning and Engagement Strategist at the National Harm Reduction Coalition; Bretta Jacquemin, Research Scientist with the New Jersey Department of Health; and Jared Hunter, lead organizer for Salvation and Social Justice.

“While the opioid epidemic has affected nearly everyone in New Jersey, it is important to acknowledge that the impact of this crisis has varied across different communities,” PDFNJ Executive Director Angelo Valente said. “As we continue to battle this epidemic, it is vital that we continue to explore and address the intersection of race and this epidemic and focus on health disparities and achieving health equity.”

This webinar will be the sixth in the 2022 Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series. In 2021, PDFNJ and NJ CARES collaborated on 10 webinars as part of the series. The organizations first combined efforts on the series in 2020 as a strategy to provide education on the opioid crisis in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar is the second on the issue of the role that race plays in the opioid epidemic, following a December 2021 event in which experts examined how race has and continues to impact the opioid epidemic, including the prescription of opioids, access to recovery services, and treatment of individuals in minority communities.

The series is a branch of Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day, which has been held in New Jersey on October 6 each year since 2016. The statewide single-day initiative is organized by PDFNJ and The Community Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Morris, in cooperation with the New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. The goal of the day is to mobilize the prevention and treatment communities, community leaders and concerned citizens to raise awareness of the potential for dependency on prescribed pain medicine, as well as their link to heroin and fentanyl use in the state.

In 2021, more than 3,000 people in New Jersey died from suspected drug overdoses, a vast majority of which involved some form of opioid including prescription painkillers, heroin and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.

The next webinar, “Fentanyl: What You Need to Know Today,” will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 28. To learn more about the Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day and to register for this and future webinars, please visit knockoutday.drugfreenj.org.


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*Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey: *Best known for its statewide substance use prevention advertising campaign, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is a private not-for-profit coalition of professionals from the communications, corporate and government communities whose collective mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs in New Jersey through media communication. To date, more than $200 million in broadcast time and print space has been donated to the Partnership’s New Jersey campaign, making it the largest public service advertising campaign in New Jersey’s history. Since its inception, the Partnership has garnered 211 advertising and public relations awards from national, regional and statewide media organizations.


CONTACT: Natalie Golub
Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey
9733824560
natalie@drugfreenj.org