the overdose crisis is becoming even more challenging to solve the epidemic is now being fueled by the rise of fenel use with more than 1,800 residents lives claimed by drug overdose this year alone Public Health experts today meant to share Solutions including replacing criminal punishments with better Public Health Care and harm reduction strategies senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan was there when the police come the attic run recovering attic J Brown told a symposium on solving New Jersey's opioid overdose crisis that in his 40 years experiencing the so-called War on Drugs in Paterson he learned a valuable lesson about law enforcement it didn't help him every time I dealt with the police I went to jail every time I went to the police they checked my name for warrants every time I went to the police they wanted to Pat me down to see if I had some drugs so we know further criminalization does not work that's how we got here in the first place right so we can't arrest our way out of this crisis and Folks at this Gathering agree it's still a crisis in 2012 New Jersey logged about 1,200 drug overdose deaths and the numbers climbed steadily peaking at more than 3,100 a couple years ago it's decreased slightly since but fentanyl remains a deadly problem prompting calls to toughen legal penalties at the same time New Jersey is also opening new harm reduction centers to offer needle exchange changes addiction treatment and referrals in 14 of 21 counties New Jersey is simultaneously attempting two things at once kind of to no avail right on one hand we're like criminalize criminalize criminalize tough on crime Law and Order on the other hand we're saying Public Health harm reduction compassion the aclu's Amy cachalia Says tougher laws simply drive up incarceration rates particularly for people of color and take them out of the Health Care System she notes the number one parole viol in New Jersey is a positive drug test drugs and the use of drugs are used as a tool right to deny people opportunity and in many cases to criminalize them and then throw them away to make them not worthy of compassion and resources over the next decade New Jersey slated to receive more than a billion dollars in opioid settlement money and Advocates here recommend that it not be spent on policing but rather invested in community's hardest hit by the War on Drugs it really comes down to do people need to be punished in order to save their life or not Advocate Tia Hurst helped Pass Oregon's harm reduction treatment program that focuses more on treatment than punishment she calls the angry push back Soul crushing because folks don't see immediate positive results Nuno kapaz says it took time for police to adjust in Portugal after his Nation de criminalized drugs one of the unintended consequences of decriminalizing is that police officers no longer Target drug users because for them it's just paperwork he's with Portugal's Health dissuasion commission which offers drug users a path to treatment like in the US funding for programs mirrors levels of public concern but he warns all we didn't solve the problem okay it's not solvable drug related issues uh problematic usage of substances it will always be around okay so we didn't solve the problem it's not done with we are managing the problem as we go along and while many New Jersey residents still face significant bills for drug treatment programs folks in Portugal can count on Universal Health Care but Brown told the crowd if harm reduction is available I tell you that harm reduction works I'm I'm I'm down with that with harm reduction there comes some love he says treatment programs need to meet the people where they're at in Ewing I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News