NJ steps up to fight against addiction and mental illness

New Jersey is a great state. We have some of the wealthiest Americans living in our state and some of the nicest places in the country. Beaches, skiing, hiking, restaurants, the great small business community, access to major cities and the best bagels, pizza, and Italian food in the country.

Yet, despite all that we have, too many New Jerseyans are struggling daily with addiction, mental illness, and isolation.

The unconstitutional behavior of our government in Trenton led to lockdowns and mandates that crushed our economy and damaged our education system and put an unnecessary strain on kids and parents that many have still not fully recovered.

Even before the lockdowns, New Jersey had a crisis with drug abuse and mental illness. On the addiction side, for years, New Jersey had an overdose rate three times the national average.

Plenty of politicians talk about the crisis and offer convenient sound bites on the campaign trail, but very little gets accomplished.

I sat down on Monday with my good friends Ashley and Danial Regan at the Epic Financial Studios in Red Bank to discuss practical solutions and common-sense best practices for our state government.

We have a crisis and we have great organizations like www.healingus.org and We Leven Up fighting hard every day to save lives when we have a governor who understands that the solution is right under our noses, we need to make sure the resources of government are serving as partners with these groups instead of obstacles.

Stay tuned for the release of the full podcast conversation.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own.

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