Gov. Christie: We Need To Give People An Opportunity To Detox At Their Most Vulnerable Moment

Statement

I was at Integrity House in Newark, a few weeks ago, and a young man said that he had figured out that he had been reversed by Narcan five or six times. And he said that each time, as soon as he was done he was released because they would ask him a series of questions, one of them being, have you thought about committing suicide? And he hadn't. But one day he said he was in and the guy on the gurney next to him who was also reversed by Narcan in the hospital he went to, and that guy said he had thought about committing suicide so he was admitted. And he saw that guy later and the guy said yeah it was great, I finally got to detox, because this guy said, I wanted a detox I couldn't get admitted anywhere to be detoxed, and so when he got reversed next time, he said I lied. He said I told the doctors all I've been thinking about is killing myself, and he said so I got admitted and I was able to detox. So we have to deal with, as a part of the recovery coach issue and a part of the whole management of this is, how do we deal with the issue of more detox capacity and the ability of people to be able to have the opportunity to detox at that most vulnerable moment when they really want it stop, but they don't know how to get there. They want to stop. And so this guy said you know I felt a little bit bad, Governor, that I actually like had to lie. He said, but I was tired of coming in and being reversed, and I knew I couldn't have a chance to change myself unless I detoxed. So he said hell, I just figured, he said, I was already a drug addict he said, so why not lie. And so, I think it's another part of this I'd love to get feedback from all of you on, you know how do we deal with the detox issue, as well, because if we have people having to say that they're you know, thinking about committing suicide in order to be admitted into detox that's, you know, that's not the intent of the admin. You know that's another part of the problem too.

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