Title
Dept/ Agency: Offices of Municipal Council/City Clerk
Action: ( ) Ratifying (X) Authorizing ( ) Amending
Type of Service: Declaring Intent
Purpose: Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month - September 2018
Sponsor: Council President, Mildred C. Crump
Additional Information:
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WHEREAS, prescription opioid use and abuse are leading factors in drug addiction and its’ catastrophic outcomes have become a national crisis: in 2016 death from opioid abuse was five (5) times higher than it was in 1999; and
WHEREAS, from 1999 to 2016, more than 350,000 people, which is more than three (3) times the United States military deaths during the twenty (20) years of the Vietnam War, have died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids; and
WHEREAS, we are losing 115 people per day from opioid overdoses and more than 40,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States in 2016; and
WHEREAS, overdoses from prescription opioids drugs like Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Percocet and Methadone are a driving factor in the fifteen (15) year increase in opioid overdose deaths; and
WHEREAS, the City of Newark is eager to educate its’ residents on opioid and prescription drug abuse and create awareness on the opioid abuse crisis and the alarming death rates state-wide and nationally; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of the City of Newark and the State of New Jersey are encouraged to increase awareness of the causes and effects of opioid and prescription abuse.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF THE CITY IF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, THAT:
1. The Municipal Council hereby proclaims the month of September 2018, as Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month throughout the City of Newark, New Jersey.
2. A copy of this resolution shall be filed with the Office of the City Clerk.
STATEMENT:
This resolution proclaims Municipal Council support of Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month to create awareness of overdoses and deaths related to prescription and opioid abuse for the month of September 2018 throughout the City of Newark, New Jersey.