That’s a far-fetched analogy only made because no one cared about the issue until it the suburbs and wealthy – PB/TK
Christie compares today’s opioid epidemic to AIDS crisis in ’80s – NJ.com 28 Apr 2017
ATLANTIC CITY — Addressing a conference of addiction treatment professionals Friday, Gov. Chris Christie said the state’s opioid addiction epidemic reminds him of another disease outbreak: the HIV and AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
“There’s a lot of similarities,” he said. “People who are in denial about the lives that are being lost; certain value judgements that are being placed upon the conduct of people who then get this disease.”
And the result of those things, he said, also looks similar: “A lack of availability of treatment and a failure by those who are sick to be willing to ask for treatment, and for their family members to come forward and ask for help,” he said.
The governor acknowledged that he was preaching to the choir at the New Jersey Prevention Network’s Annual Addiction Conference. The one-day conference at the Atlantic City Convention Center aims to educate prevention and treatment professionals about current issues regarding substance abuse.
In 2015, the rate of heroin and opioid overdose deaths in New Jersey was two times the national rate and up 22 percent from 2014. NJ Advance Media estimates at least 128,000 residents are addicted to heroin.
Continue to rawstory.com article: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/christie-compares-todays-opioid-epidemic-to-aids-crisis-in-80s/
