State Expands Anti-Overdose Pilot

TRENTON (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie (R) says the nation needs to change the way it responds to drug addiction.

The governor held a news conference Tuesday at a Trenton drug treatment center to announce the statewide expansion of a pilot program that allows police officers to carry and administer a drug that can quickly reverse heroin overdoses.

Police in every county, as well as state troopers, will now be trained to administer Narcan along with EMTs. The drug can reverse an overdose that would likely otherwise be fatal.

Officials credit a pilot program for helping save more than 40 lives so far.

Christie has long called the war on drugs a failure and said addiction needs to be treated as a disease and not a crime.

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