MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp announces the recent Community Outreach Program about the Opiate and Heroin epidemic was productive and educational. The event was a joint effort by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office and the Rockaway Borough Police Department to provide valuable information to the community. The event held at the Morris Hills High School in Rockaway was filled with many concerned residents and those affected by the epidemic, was captivated by what they heard.
Rockaway Borough Police Chief Doug Scheer opened the event with passionate remarks about the epidemic, and how the community of Rockaway Borough has been affected. Chief Scheer was followed by Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp.
Prosecutor Knapp conveyed that, as with many counties throughout New Jersey, Morris County has been adversely affected by the Opiate and Heroin epidemic. He emphasized that the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office is aggressively pursuing “For-Profit” distributers of Opiates and Heroin with vigorous prosecution and incarceration. Moreover, Prosecutor Knapp is a proponent of intervention and treatment for the nonviolent drug addicted user, rather than incarceration. He agrees that addiction is a disease that many people suffer from and should be treated as such. Lastly, Prosecutor Knapp discussed the relatively new introduction of Narcan, which is now supplied to first responders as a life saving measure, for use on those who overdose on Opiates or Heroin and face imminent death. Narcan reverses the effect of the overdose on the body, and since its implementation in Morris County, has resulted in 44 lives saved by police officers during 2015. Unfortunately, during that same year, 43 people lost their lives due to an Opiate overdose.
