well Saturday marks International overdose Awareness Day the world's largest annual campaign to end overdose remember those who've died and remind the public that there is hope there are a number of local events being sponsored around the state from vigils to meetings and community outreach according to the CDC 2600 people in New Jersey lost their lives to overdose last year a senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports Advocates are zeroing in on parts of the state that need more money money to save more residents from this preventable death unfortunately his drug that he chose was laced with fence and all and he didn't stand a chance you know he was he was gone within seconds of the overdose it's hard for Arlene Brogan to talk about her younger brother Brian Brogan who died of an overdose last year relapsing after years of struggling with addiction it broke our family in a in a half tomorrow August 31st is international overdose awareness day and with more than 2 200 new jerseyans dying from an overdose in 2023 alone recovery support groups are calling for change every overdose is preventable Alyssa tyrany is with the not one more campaign that's just released a second version of a road map for the state of New Jersey on how to spend the opioid settlement funds coming to the state from Pharma companies responsible for flooding the marketplace with opioids we would like to see these funds used for Med medically assisted treatment which would be buprenorphine and methadone which are evidence-based practices harm reduction centers where people are coming in to get testing strips and syringes New Jersey is expected to get about a billion dollars uh between now and the year of 2038 uh that billion dollars is going to be split in half half is going to be distributed by the state and the other half is going to be going to counties and cities uh throughout the state of New Jersey Bob Budsock leads Integrity House in Newark and agrees the funds should only go to programs that are proven to reduce overdose deaths what is working well is a residential addiction treatment outpatient addiction treatment evidence-based Prevention Services harm reduction services and also ensuring that recovery supports are available one of those key supports housing safe sober uh supportive recovery housing so you know there are some housing opportunities for individuals but not enough the not one more road map also discourages any programs or systems that continue the War on Drugs approach or criminalizing those who are battling addiction let's not try to like ticket and arrest our way out of this problem because it has never worked Tierney says an Innovative approach that's been successful in New York is overdose prevention centers where people can safely use inside rather than out on the street they work they take public use inside so not only are you not you don't you're not getting arrested outside for using you're bringing that in but if you do overdose there's someone there to reverse the overdose but also connect you to care a model that could have saved Brian Brogan's life says arleene an addict walks into the hospital what they did was they revived him with Narcan and they let him go a few hours later and what what the addicts will do is they'll go continue to use the drug and that's what happened to my brother he walked out of the hospital and died the night he was saved so I would really really like some of those funds to go to maybe meeting with ER talking to doctors and creating procedures for immediate referrals to care and it's these personal perspectives that not one more believes should be part of the strategic planning for spending funds they're asking the state to listen to them and Target the money toward local organizations that are building relationships within the communities of those using drugs we are guiding you in the the direction where the opioid settlement money should go we're on the front lines we are listening to the people who are struggling the families people who have um the families of the people who have died and this is where they want the money to go and this is like it's based in evidence it is more costly and time consuming however the most effective um responses have been on a more local level and that's where the community peer recovery centers and having harm reduction centers in each County will be will be beneficial and they'd like the council that makes the funding decisions to open its meetings to the public so they can weigh in on the billion dollar allocation for NJ Spotlight news I'm Joanna Gagis [Music]