Hello everybody and welcome to Stockton University
I'm very excited to welcome everybody here today
I would like to everybody to know that this is being recorded.
So if you don't want to be recorded please don't ask a question later and you'll be fine.
I'd like to welcome Mary Pat our moderator today and get started, thank you.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
And this is thank you to all of you for coming out on a hot summer day
you could have been at the beach but it's very important
that we get the facts out so I greatly appreciate everybody coming out.
Just by a very quick way of introduction my name is Mary Pat Angelini.
I'm a former Legislator, I served in the New Jersey Assembly for eight years and
I've been in the field of drug prevention for close to thirty
I'm ashamed to say and this has really been my my life's work.
I'm currently the CEO of Preferred Behavioral Health Group.
Today I want to have a conversation and it's going to be very conversational
in the format and then they'll be opportunities for questions at the end
and there's a microphone set up right over here anyone has questions.
So again I want to thank you all for coming.
I'm going to introduce Patrick Kennedy Congressman Patrick Kennedy
he's a former congressman from Rhode Island and the founder of the Kennedy Forum
he co-founded One Mind and he was a commissioner on the President's Commission
on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis.
During his 16 years in Congress Patrick fought to end discrimination against mental illness,
addiction, and other brain diseases.
He's best known as the lead sponsor of the
groundbreaking Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act which was passed
with bipartisan support and signed into law by president George W Bush.
In addition to the Federal Parity Law, Kennedy authored and co-sponsored dozens
of bills during his time in Congress to increase the understanding and
treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
In 2013 he founded the Kennedy Forum
Whose mission is to lead a national dialogue on transforming
mental health and addiction care delivery by uniting mental health
advocates, business leaders, and community agencies.
Really just common sense, but
unfortunately it doesn't happen and I greatly appreciate your leadership on this issue
Likewise Mary Pat
In the spring of 2017,
Kennedy was appointed, Mr. Kennedy, was appointed to serve on the President's Commission
on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis.
The Commission chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, studied ways to
combat and treat the scourge of drug abuse and addiction in the United States.
He has been formerly recognized for his mental health
advocacy and leadership many times over and is the recipient of many awards.
Most importantly he is the husband of Amy and he just had his fifth, they just had their fifth child
so congratulations Patrick.
Thank you very much
And then I'm gonna go ahead and,
yes please let's give him a round of applause.
[applause]
I'm going to then also just get the introductions out of the way.
Ijeoma Opara, I've had the pleasure of getting to know her through this fight
against marijuana legalization and she's just a delight.
She's a Senior Policy Adviser for New Jersey Ramp as well as a
Research Fellow for a program funded by a grant from the US Department of Health
and Human Services, working with youth and their families in drug use and abuse
prevention in the city of Paterson.
Additionally Ms. Opara is funded by the National Institute on Health as a Doctoral Fellow,
Fellow, excuse me, in the Behavioral Health Sciences training in drug abuse research at NYU.
Before pursuing her Doctorate, Ijeoma worked as a Youth and Family Therapist in New York City.
In addition to conducting research and advocating for policy change, she
teaches at Columbia University School of Social Work.
She also teaches Substance Abuse Policy at the Silverman School of Social Work at the City University of New York.
Ms. Opara earned a Masters in Social Work from NYU.
A Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from New York Medical College
and received her BA in Psychology from New Jersey City University.
She's currently pursuing her PhD in the Department of Family Science
and Human Development at Montclair State. So let's give her a round of applause.
[applause]
So the topic of today's seminar or discussion conversation is legalization in New Jersey.
Do we really want it?
Is that really what we want for our beautiful Garden State?
So I'd like to just open up the floor and ask Patrick what,
and Patrick as you know, or I don't think I did mention, is a native of New Jersey.
Lives in New Jersey.
So what do you think about New Jersey legalizing recreational use?
Well first, thanks Mary Pat for your long advocacy
and so much does happen in the state legislature and thanks for your service there.
And Ms. Opara it's really an honor to be with you, what a distinguished CV you already have.
You look too young to have all those credits.
But you are, you know you're getting supported in your Doctoral Degree by the
National Institutes on Drug Abuse which is the lead agency researching this issue.
So for those who are in the audience not only does she have a
distinguished career in Child Development, but she also is particularly recognized.
You don't become a fellow at the NIH let alone the National Institute on Drug Abuse
if you're not really sharp.
So we're honored that you're here.
You can help correct me as we go along on everything. Okay, so so this is the big conundrum here.
We really don't need, we were talking before, to put up a bunch of slides.
Although I have them, to talk about the fact if you legalize you essentially commercialize
which of course opens up access.
And the more access you have you have more people that use
and if a certain percentage that population who uses is prone to addiction, as I have been,
then they're going to become addicted.
And so the X Factor of additional problems
of addiction and the other mental health problems that come from marijuana use
It's not a surprise to say that all of that's going to blow up with the expansion.
Because by laws of reason, you know more people use, more people have this
more people are going to get addicted, more people are not going to get promotions,
more people are not going to get A's and B's, more people are not
going to move on with their lives in a way they wouldn't otherwise move on.
Because for a certain percentage of the population and certainly not nearly the majority
but for a small percentage of the population this is going to be
something that takes them out of the game of life.
And I came into this because I'm an advocate obviously for the Parity Law that I had the honor of
authoring while I was a member of Congress.
And that Parity Law says that
we ought to address mental health illnesses and addiction illnesses the
same as we do cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease.
What a revolutionary concept right.
That we ought to treat illnesses of the brain
the same ways we treat all other illnesses of the body.
But a funny thing happened as I was going around the country talking about how we could make
our country more mentally well through the application of the Parity Law
whereby more people could gain access to treatment for depression and anxiety and
a whole host of illnesses.
I was running up against the fact that while all this
was happening we have this big debate on legalizing a new drug just after we've seen the effects
of what money behind an addictive drug has meant in terms of the opioid crisis
Because frankly we all know now that Purdue Pharma was putting their foot on the accelerator
to get more people to take OxyContin because it meant more money for them.
So you have the combination of a profit motive, combined with an addictive substance
and guess what the public health issue gets run right over.
Now my late Father, Senator Edward Kennedy, was the champion of trying to rein in the effects of big tabacco.
I think there was no one in the United States that did more to fight the
big tobacco companies than my late father other than maybe the people that
got the consent lawsuit that finally got the tobacco industry to admit that they
were lying about the addictive of impact of nicotine.
But of course we had to lose
millions of Americans because for years the big tobacco CEOs lied to Congress
and to the American people basically saying oh it's not so bad.
And every time I hear people talk about marijuana in the same way it's not so bad,
you know some voice goes off in my head like I think I've heard this before.
Not only have I heard it before with respect to big tobacco, but I've heard it
before with respect to Oxycontin because everyone said oh that's ok.
It's, you know medically prescribed you know and so forth of course the risk factor
of it was reduced because everyone said well it got prescribed.
You know so it can't be anything wrong my doctor prescribed it and the same mentality is
going to be the mentality with commercialized marijuana because now
everyone's going to say well it's called medical marijuana you know, people are taking it
for this and this and this must be ok.
And it's that de-risking, is what we call it
de-risking meaning the the harm that people feel they're going to get into if they use
is reduced which not surprisingly corresponds to an increased rate of use.
So the more, particularly kids see this as anon-issue
then the more kids use, and that's why in all the states that have legalized
the number of teenage use of marijuana not surprisingly has skyrocketed.
Now I know there are many and all these audiences that I address
that are libertarians who believe you know well I'm an adult I ought to be
able to smoke and all the rest and like I've got no argument with that
if we could keep it confined to the adults.
But unfortunately because of neuroscience we know that children's brains are not fully developed
until their mid-20s, and so the most deleterious impact of marijuana is
particularly on kids and the developing brain and they're going to be the ones
that end up getting targeted with the advertising the most because they're
going to the ones that do become lifelong consumers.
I mean that's that's the cash cow for the big industry of marijuana.
And and and they can all say well we could regulate this.
You've heard that before Mary Pat on every issue,
but we all know the government doesn't stand a chance of regulating this thing
compared to the big money that's gonna be advertising this stuff everywhere.
Now I, while I was in Congress, was always voting for more regulation on the liquor industry.
Because frankly we lose more people to alcoholism in this country than we do to opioids.
Almost twice as much.
We lose nearly a hundred thousand people to
alcoholism every year we lose sixty-four thousand to opiates and other drugs.
Most people don't know that because it's insidious.
It comes the death rate comes in a myriad of different ways not as
dramatic as the overdose but nonetheless very deadly.
And we have seen a universal kind of advertising on cable television of hard liquor
for the last several years and that is bad for our public health.
So I just want to say I'm an equal-opportunity, Pro mental health, reducing addiction person.
I want to regulate the the alcohol industry more but you know it also should tell us
if the alcohol industry can basically run with impunity, and by the way there
were I think eight lobbyists for every member of Congress from the liquor
industry when I was in Washington DC and I bet it's almost the same in the state legislatures
where most of the regulation frankly happens.
Once this horse gets out of the barn honest to god the notion that we in government are
going to stand a prayer of a chance to regulate an industry with that much
money and influence behind it frankly as Mary Pat can attest it's very close to slim and none.
and the and and it's and it's the impact
of that is obviously going to be on more people thinking that it's not a big deal to drink.
It's not a big deal to smoke and at the end of the day I think we as a society collectively pay
a huge price for us let alone individuals who are living in families who are impacted by but these illnesses.
So that is the very long answer to your question thank you Mary Pat.
Thank you, that's excellent and
we have so many colleagues, I have colleagues I see from the drug
prevention field so I think in part we're preaching to the choir but I think
it's very very important for everybody to to get some information and to share
it with your friends and your neighbors.
You know those of us that are in this field we live it, we were talking about it all the time
but the rest of the country is, the rest of the state you know they're they're off to the beach.
I mean it's not this, is not their primary focus so that's what we have to keep remembering
and I'm going to keep putting a plug in throughout the day for NJ Ramp.
There was information outside.
Its NJ dash ramp dot org and that again.
I'm sure everyone knows its stands for New Jersey Responsible Approaches to Marijuana Policy.
There's information there out in the foyer and you can link right to your legislator
and again that's what I'm gonna keep saying and reminding people.
The legislators need to know how you feel about this issue
because it's the summertime and things funny things can happen in Trenton when
you know no one's looking and they think everyone's at the beach.
So I'll remind everybody about that a little bit.
Ijeoma you work with youth and you
Talk about that in the drug prevention world we talk about perception and a youths perception.
Talk about that but also couple that with some of the experiences that we've found in
Colorado, in California where these dispensaries end up, which neighborhoods.
So a part of the work that I do is I work for a
drug-free communities grant so I do a lot of community work in the city of
Paterson but before then I'm also a licensed social worker and I work directly with youth
of color and predominantly urban urban communities in New York City.
And often when I talk to youth and educate them about drug use
and educate them about other associated behaviors of drug use like sexual risk behavior
what they've told me is that oh yeah we know cigarettes are bad
cigarettes cause cancer yeah we're not go gonna smoke cigarettes.
But marijuana is not a big deal it it's legal.
So what's the big deal it's legal in Colorado if the government's regulating it how could it be dangerous?
It cures cancer it you know it does all these different things that you know
that they're assuming that you know it does because of the misconception of marijuana.
And the problem with legalization that people need to
understand is that the perception of risk does become lowered.
You know that's an issue because when perception of risk is lowered then you're going to
have not only increase in usage but an increase in first-time users.
And these are probably going to be people that are that may be prone to addiction.
And these are already people that are living in communities that already lack mental
health treatment, already lack substance abuse treatment, so what are they going to do?
This is going to end up you know really destroying and hurting their lives and hurting their futures.
And I won't you know I won't lie I think I
hear a lot about the social justice argument with the legalization and I totally understand it.
I work directly in the field.
I've worked in an alternative to incarceration program where youth of color and their families were we're
devastated by the criminal justice system because their children were
caught with marijuana or were selling marijuana and they were you know
sentenced to to jail or prison or probation, I totally get it.
But then I've worked with as a social worker I've actually worked with youth
And they've told me like,I don't,
I can't stop smoking you know.
I you know I, I have all these other issues.
I have anxiety, I'm depressed, I'm this I'm that they don't seek any you
know they're not able to seek treatment and we need to be able to address that.
They're in the what we're seeing also in regards to marijuana with youth in and Colorado is that
even though we know we're talking about the social justice issue you know Black and Latino men
and women get arrested at higher rates than whites which is true.
You know I definitely acknowledge that is why I'm
for de-criminalization but what we see but we're seeing in Colorado is that
youth of color arrest rates have gone up.
It's going up by 60% ever since marijuana became recreational marijuana became legalized.
We have to address that so and and this is public information
and I'm worried that's just going to happen to New Jersey.
I've talked to legislators in New Jersey you know.
I actually have done the work and talked to Senator Sweeney's staff and
talked to other legislators who are you know who are for this movement and asked them.
What are you going to do to address that how are you going to address the
negative impact that this may have on urban communities that already lack
resources to to treat the drug problems that are already happening?
We haven't even really dealt with the alcohol issue, tobacco issues
opioid crisis and now we're adding another drug and we're disguising
it as a social justice issue.
That it's absurd to me and you know and they have
and they have no answer you know and that and that's what scares me so I I do understand that
people, there are people that smoke marijuana or they I do want to use
marijuana and they don't they ever get addicted to it.
I understand that I understand the recreational use of marijuana.
But we have to we have to look at look at tobacco and alcohol as examples.
It's not reassuring to me that legislators tell me oh we're just going to regulate
like we're regulating alcohol, that's not reassuring.
Alcohol is actually the number one substance used by teenagers in this country
Marijuana is the number one illicit you know substance and we have to understand like the
Congressman Kennedy mentioned that alcohol does cause a majority of the problems and
there are a majority of negative health outcomes more in-depth associated with
alcohol then then opioids.
But we have to also remember to the out the use of
alcohol is very normalized the use of tobacco is very normalized because they're legal.
Not because they're more dangerous than opioids they're these are legal drugs.
And it took the nation about over like 50 years for them people start
realizing, oh wow tobacco actually is associated with cancer you know let's
let's let's let's start now forcing tobacco companies to put out all these
advertisements saying that kids know this smoking this product is
actually going to kill people.
It took 50 years for that I don't want to
see that again with marijuana, especially with the communities that I work with
who are already lacking resources to fight all these the substance use disorder anyway.
But if I could?
Yes
So Ms. Opara this is a really interesting phenomena that I
think illustrates the real fallacy in Governor Murphy and other proponents of legalization.
When arguing that it's a social justice issue because they're
conflating the real need to correct the war on drugs and yet they're not
addressing the underlying bias in the criminal justice system against people of color.
And what they're saying is they're using this popular movement
as as a way for them to excuse what they know or they should know
as an educated person is an inexcusable thing.
Like putting the public health at risk by commercializing an addictive substance
that causes so many known mental health and addictive issues.
What we ought to do if we're
really interested in reducing the disproportionate population of African American, Hispanic
people in our jails and prisons is we ought to look at real criminal justice reform.
And and if you're really interested in reducing the
burden on communities of color of an onerous criminal justice system that
that really tragically impacts so many people of color then address that.
As opposed to thinking that you're doing it by commercializing a drug
And and by the way, your point that it's going to somehow reduce the arrests of people of
color is nonsense and the evidence now is in.
The evidence shows there's actually an increase in arrests because you see a biased law enforcement
official is going to arrest someone a color for another infraction.
Yeah, legalization of marijuana is not going to change that, you know, and I think people
need to really understand that we do have a serious systemic issue in the
criminal justice system and why people of color are targeted, and why they're criminalized.
But not even just that we have to also understand why is
that urban communities they're not speaking in New Jersey why are they
under-resourced? We have to address those structural factors that are causing
people to use, and why there are lack of mental health and substance abuse
treatment centers in these communities.
We have to talk about poverty.
We have to talk about lack of Health Care.
You know these are serious issues, we have to
talk about education, how do we fix the education system in inner-city
communities?
No one's talking about that.
If he really wants to address the social
justice issue let's figure out how do we improve the the graduation rate in urban high schools.
Let's let's talk about that.
How do we encourage more black and Latino youth to be able to get into college with full scholarships?
These are these are serious issues that are not being addressed.
You know, so I think it's insulting to say that "Oh, legalizing marijuana is somehow going to
help people of color" when you're not even addressing all the other systemic
issues that are hurting us.
And, you compound that with the fact that liquor stores are eight times more likely to be
in a minority neighborhood than in all white neighbohoods.
Speaking of liquor stores, I'm sorry I don't mean to cut you off.
So the work that I do in Patterson is that I don't know if
a lot of people are familiar with Patterson, about two hours away from here, but
we battled for years how to reduce alcohol outlet density in Patterson
because of flawed legislation. This is why it's very important for people to
really understand what the what bills are being passed and what their
legislators are fighting for, because if you don't focus on this now you're going
to reap the consequences in like twenty thirty years. So what we were what we
found in Patterson was that Patterson has three times the amounts of liquor
stores that are actually legally allowed because liquor stores
were grandfathered in. So they're actually supposed to have about sixty
liquor stores but they have about a hundred and 140 even more than that, some
of them are even they're even more that or that are illegal. And they just keep rising.
We've talked to youth, we've talked to parents and community leaders who've
talked with who said all these liquor stores you know all we see are people
that are you know they're drunk sitting in front of the liquor stores. There's an
increase in violence, there is an increase in crime, there's an increase of sexually
transmitted diseases, I mean there's so much you know that goes on when you have
a numerous amount of liquor stores. And not only that local stores were saying
opens like 3:00 a.m. And this was only happening in Paterson. It wasn't
happening in the surrounding suburban communities, this was happening in
Paterson. So we fought for years to work with City Council, we had youth that
were front and center talking to city councilmen about what
can we do to reduce this problem. Because we're seeing, we're youth, we're
seeing adults engaged in these risky behaviors. It doesn't give us
any hope, it makes us like if it makes us see like okay maybe we should be doing
this too. You know adults have to understand we're talking about
recreational marijuana for adult use, I get that, you know but we have to understand
youth are looking at us. You know we need to be their leaders and they're role
models. So one of the ordinances that we passed was to actually reduce the hours
of operation for alcohol outlets so they could be closed at 10:00PM
and sort of like 3:00AM. Because what we found by working with the police
department was that, the the highest amount police on service service calls
were between the hours of 10:00PM. to 6:00AM and a majority were around
liquor stores. So we did that last year we got that passed and you know hope and
we and because of that alone, there has been a reduction in crime in those areas.
So I'm really proud of the work that we're doing but I just really want to
emphasize that it's not just Patterson, Newark, and other urban cities have this
same problem, with high amounts of you know alcohol outlet density and we're
starting to see it in Denver. Where the communities of color in Denver have high
amounts of marijuana dispensaries. We have to ask these questions, why are
suburban communities creating ordinances banning recreational marijuana already.
They don't want it in their neighborhoods, they know what drugs do to
their neighborhoods. They'll come to our neighborhoods and
and buy and buy up the drugs
That's right.
but they don't want it in their neighborhoods. We have to really be aware of that, and figure out what's going on.
New Jersey, and I'm glad you mentioned the ordinances, because that's
what I was going to bring that up next. In New Jersey currently I believe we
have over 50, maybe 60 by now, municipalities have passed ordinances
where they are saying we don't want pot shops in our in our neighborhoods.
What we found in, Colorado and California, Where where are the the shops? As you
said they're not in suburbia, they're in the inner cities. And you talk about the
message that we're sending to our children, like we don't care about you
like just walk past that every day on your way to school. And it's it really is
a much larger issue. And again if there's anyone in the audience that has any we
have sample ordinances, we have the mayor of Point Pleasant Beach who was here, and
he, Steve Reed, stand up Steve wave so everyone can see you.
They passed the first ordinance in New Jersey to keep the dispensaries outside
of of their community. So I think that's a real piece that's again it's something
that that citizens can get behind. And we have like I said we have sample
templates, you don't have to do anything just take it to your council and say we
don't want this in our neighborhoods.
But, the big issue I think,
Ms. Opara mentioned it, and that is the kind of adult versus kids. Right? So, the real
question for the country is, okay, let's say you have somebody like the
gentleman in the back, who keeps applauding for me every time I mention
marijuana, who who wants to smoke marijuana believes that adults should be
able to do it. As I said I have no problem with that but the question is
for his right to be able to exercise his civil liberty to smoke, is he willing to
compromise the public health of our youth.
That's the question for our country. Because with rights come with
responsibilities. And and nothing nothing is free in this world and if you want
legalization you have to own up to the consequences of commercialization on the
public health and on this country. Where not only do you have communities of
color disproportionately impacted by it, but in a depressed economy in many
places of the country. Where people are suffering from the displacement due to
the shifting economy and therefore feel anxious about their financial future and
unable to access mental health services and get the appropriate services like
someone like I am able to get. Marijuana is an easy way to treat those anxieties.
For school kids who are worried about the angst of growing up that are worried
about being bullied. You know, over the Internet. Someone says that listen you
can vape this and no one's going to smell it. You can just drop this in the
e-cigarette and you're gonna be all set. All I can say to you is we already have
a growing acknowledgement of an epidemic of anxiety in this country, particularly
amongst our youth, and also amongst those most vulnerable populations suffering
from the marginalization in our economy. And they're going to be the
groups that are most likely to self-medicate using this new substance.
And that compounds the injustice. And I think we have, as Americans, have to think
"What's good for our country?". God forbid in a "me me me" world where it's all about
"me" we never think about our country again. We're ever thinking about the patriotic
faith that our forebears had when they said they're gonna sacrifice in order to
build a better country for the next generation. How much are we keeping that
faith when we say, knowing full well the impact of these illnesses, that we're
going to let something happen that we know the impact of which it's going to
be. Having seen it in these other states because. The phrase goes "Fool me once,
shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me". And it's now not fool me twice it's
fool me, how many states are? Fool me five times. Shame on me me me because there's
no like, ignorance here oh we need to you know we can get you all the information
but yet, God's honest truth is you don't really, this is like a gut check. If I
have to convince you up here that this doesn't make rational sense, given
the historic experience of liquor and tobacco. If you don't get it in your gut
that this is just not good for our country and our communities while we're
trying to fight a raging fire of addiction in this country. You know that
is the biggest public health threat of our nation and I frankly believe is an
existential crisis for our country. What does that mean?
It means that we're losing while our overall survival rate, thanks to great
breakthroughs for particularly cancer research, is allowing us to live longer
lives and thanks to addressing other cardiovascular disease. In spite of all
those expansions, the death rate due to mental illness and addiction is
literally changing the overall life expectancy of Americans. This is not just
a fringe health issue, this health issue affects our nation. And for us to say
that it's okay, as governor Murphy does, to commercialize
this in light of everything else going around I know what environment gives
rise to that. Because I grew up in an alcoholic home. Where you basically deny
things that are right in front of you. That are dysfunctional. And you shut down
because it's too painful to think about. And I don't know what kind of denial it
takes for someone in the face of all that evidence, oh, to the contrary and our
Public Health, would say that they're going to stake this state's future on
commercializing marijuana.
I think often, if I may add
Save me, don't let me go on and on you got to cut in with me.
I think often what happens is people conflate to
criminalization, recreational marijuana use, and medical marijuana use too. I
think people really don't know the differences. So I think that's why you see a lot of
support for legalization because I think a majority people do think that
recreational marijuana and medical marijuana are the same thing. And they don't
think, and a majority of people do support the decriminalization of
marijuana. As do we. You know, I support it
I do too
I think there's a way to decriminalize marijuana that can protect everyone that uses it,
and can allow them to seek help that they may or may not need. But I I do
I just talk to the audience a little bit about commercialization because I
think that most people think marijuana that is being sold recreationally is just a
plant, just cannabis plant. I don't think they realize that marijuana industry is
actually selling really potent levels of THC concentrated products, and we may or
may not know that THC is actually the ingredient in recreational marijuana or
marijuana in general that makes you high but has also been associated with
psychosis, memory development, even you know in you know behavioral behavioral
changes, so this is a very dainty a very very potentially dangerous component and
what we're seeing is that the marijuana industry is is selling, let me see, yeah,
for example edibles. Selling edibles, some edibles that we that we have seen have
had levels of like eighty, ninety, percent THC. That's ridiculous, right? This is not
it's not the plant anymore this is not the cannabis plant that
everyone's talking about like "Oh this is a safe plant".
To put it in context, so the
the old hippies that are in the audience and it's like "Oh, what was the big deal
you know it was, I smoked a joint." What was the THC level back then in the 70s?
The THC level back then was about 4%, now when you look at street marijuana the Drug Enforcement
Administration has found that street marijuana has about maybe eight, nine
percent THC as much as 12% THC. Now we're seeing that THC levels in products that
are sold in in Colorado and other states that have legalized recreational
marijuana are as high as eighty, ninety percent. They're selling concentrates,
they're selling marijuana THC oils. I just got back from Amsterdam actually.
Everyone knows what Amsterdam is so famous for. And I went to do my own research.
I didn't use. I wanted to do my own research on you know I wanted to know how they
regulated marijuana because a lot of pro legalization people often
compare the United States to the Netherlands and the Netherlands is doing it .
And they seem like a great place a great place to live but what I found was
talking to marijuana sellers were that they don't even sell concentrates. They
actually regulate THC. They don't allow more than fourteen, fifteen percent
at most THC to be in their marijuana products. They don't sell concentrates
they were looking at me like I was crazy, likes concentrates? I think they were
shocked to even hear that. They have a very you know their Amsterdam is you know has
its own issues but they we're very shocked to hear about how
America is doing marijuana and they know that America how we're doing it is that
we're allowing the big marijuana industry, we're allowing money to
fuel addiction. The only way the only way that we, that that the governor and
other states that want to legalize recreational marijuana, is going to how
it is going to improve the economy, whatever promises you're making. The only way that
it could possibly do that is by encouraging heavy users. I mean you have
to use heavy just recreational use every day one like one once a week we need to
Ms. Opara we need to
raise taxes we got more revenue we need here in New Jersey so we're gonna have to
really step on the accelerator and get more New Jerseyans to use because our revenue
problem is going to be dependent on how much money we can garner in order to
make it such that this thing pays off. Do you see that the fallacy in this idea?
that we only save our finances if we flush down our public health down the
toilet? Does anyone see the the real and does anyone think that this
is targeting responsible adults?
I personally don't know any adults that run out to go buy gummy bears in the middle of the night.
You know I don't eat gummy bears, but they're selling you know weed infused gummy bears,
lollipops, pop-tarts, sodas now. I mean is this the plant that we're advocating for?
And don't and like and like I said don't get me wrong I understand that people do
want to use recreationally, I get that, but you have to ask your legislators
what are they doing to make sure that the marijuana is going to be sold is
actually marijuana. Right? We have to understand to the social justice aspect.
Public health is a social justice issue. I keep saying that over and over again,
we have to put our health first before money.
What about the argument that
the money is all going to drug treatment programs.
You know that argument really makes no sense to me
honestly you're increasing and they promised that the money from
marijuana's will go to drug treatment, drug prevention, as well go back to the
schools and communities of color. Communities of color are going to have
first first dibs on who's going to own dispensaries. It's preposterous to me. To
increase access to drugs and then also simultaneously use that money to
treat to prevent the use of that drug, and to prevent it and to also treat that drug.
It makes no sense but that is what they're promising us.
And what happened in Colorado? That's a rhetorical question because I know the answer.
Yeah exactly.
But then also, I forgot the point I was making.
About the money going to drug treatment.
Yeah I mean we've talked to Colorado officials that have said they have not seen any money going to
their schools, as promised. Drug treatment or prevention. I mean this is you know
it's a ridiculous, you know, issue the only way to really prevent the use of heavy drug
use is to not make that available. I mean I think that's, you know, very clear. Not
make the drug as available as you know as it is.
So another aspect besides the health that's affected is the employment. Because most people don't realize that
even if a state legalizes, that doesn't mean your employer will allow you to be tested positive for it.
You can't that that case has been tried in every place and there's a,
can't get away with it. So it's just worth knowing
that in Colorado they now have to go out of state to hire people because there's
not enough people in state that can pass a drug test.
In many parts of this country that are pretty economically distressed companies like Walmart and
others cannot build a plan in these and a store in these communities because
they cannot find enough people to build it who are drug-free or staff it who are drug-free
And I just think it's worth acknowledging that there is a another
dimension to this besides the very real issues of addiction and mental illness
as because as we know these marijuana for for some really instigate psychosis.
Particularly given the high rates of THC in these products so I'm just trying to
point out that there are number of reasons.
So I also want to say go back to where New Jersey is.
New Jersey is one of the 10 worst states in the nation
for holding its health insurance companies most notably obviously Blue Cross
accountable under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.
So it's ironic that the governor says he's for commercializing but has done
nothing to correct the fact that this state is one of the ten worst states
when you need to get access for addiction treatment.
So how ironic is it that not only do you need to get more people to use
and then use that revenue to try to get people, less people to use okay.
And then you know to say that
you're going to commercialize this at the same time when you know it's going
to increase the the number of people are going to need addiction treatment but
then have a state that ranks as one of the ten worst in terms of enforcing a
law that says addiction should be covered equitably in terms of its insurance coverage
And I think another thing to point out is enforcement you know.
Nobody's really talking about how this, how is this going to be enforced once it becomes legalized.
How are we going to make sure that youth don't use?
How are we going to make sure that people aren't using outside in public places you know.
I'm pretty sure that there's going to be neighborhoods where
people are gonna call and say look my neighbors smoking weed all day.
I don't want to smell the smoking weed, police officer you need to come and arrest them.
And who's going to be targeted? Obviously right it's always the people of color that are always at that're
always at this receiving end of bad policies.
You know we really have to you know understand that.
And I'm in no way saying that Black people and Latino people
use me use more than than whites I'm not in no way saying that.
It's actually pretty equal if not more for for whites.
So you know I was going to be you know very frank with that.
But I'm very passionate about having people understand that
although I think that pro-legalization people really do believe
that this is a social justice issue I understand your your arguments.
But you have to really think about it.
Is the legislation written in a social justice way?
I think it's written more in a money way.
I've talked to legislators about the THC components.
They even they didn't even have no idea what I was talking about.
They were like there's no THC limit?
I'm like you wrote the bill. You know they really had no idea.
This is this is a problem that and
and what I say is that if it does become legalized and have told legislators. look
Look, I'm a public health, I'm a drug abuse prevention and you know expert.
Mary Pat's an expert you know we're here we're here if he needs as a resource to
make sure that if it does become legalized let's do this safely. We made ourselves available for that.
And I urge people that are if you know if after this
you're still like look I don't care what they say I still I still want my marijuana
that's fine you know whatever but but think about the public health impact.
Talk to your Legislators, talk to your city Councilmen and say look if
this comes to our town how are we going to protect our health?
How are we going to protect youth?
How are the police going to enforce this?
How, who's going to pay for that?
How are we going to control people that are driving while under the influence?
How are we going to control people coming into our state from Pennsylvania, New York.
Maryland coming into our state to buy marijuana get on the train and then leave.
How are we going to control that drug trafficking you know.
You have to answer these questions.
Because flawed policies always impact the most vulnerable always always
Talk about the drug driving issue that we're seeing in Colorado as far as testing.
So what we've been seeing is that there is an increase in drug driving and the
difficulty and having to regulate that is that no one is really sure how to
even test drivers who are driving you know under the influence right.
Like how do you, because it's not like with with alcohol or you could use a breathalyzer.
You have to actually get like a blood test and what we and what may we may or
may not know is that marijuana stays it can stay in our system for as much as 30 days right.
So what we're seeing is that there is an increase in
drug driving there's no legislation so that's put out there to say okay we have
to figure out a way to make this you know safer for the public and how police
officers are going to be able to test people that are under the influence of marijuana.
How are we gonna protect other people?
There's I think there was recently an accident were, was in Virginia
I can't remember the state actually where someone was driving under the influence
of marijuana and ended up killing someone, right.
Now that person, what's gonna happen to that person is that person go to jail?
How are they even going to prove that he was highly intoxicated like you know how how are we
that it's such a blurred area that we don't even really understand it enough.
We don't understand the science enough.
You know so so what we, what my stance is
and what our you know what our stance this is really let's slow down with this legalization.
You know we there's a lot of unanswered questions that we have.
If this is a social justice issue focus on decriminalization
have Governor Murphy focus on to decriminalize
marijuana for the whole state of New Jersey let's see what happens.
Will marijuana use go up?
You know will will will you know will use among youth go up
if we decriminalize let's see what happens start collecting data.
Start talking about a public health task force be on standby to and to help with
on the drafting legislation so that if you do want to legalize it you're doing it right.
But the problem with that is that we have money pushing us you know
when you have money and big marijuana industry and non-public health experts creating policies
that come that that that um have a direct impact on our health is going to be flawed it's going to be very dangerous.
The drug driving issue is also something again when you're speaking to your local council people.
Um, that's gonna be an expense that's gonna be pushed down to
the local municipality because to be to receive that certification
D-R-E it stands for Drug Recognition Expert and for the police to get receive that
certification it's very very expensive.
We were talking to our colleague Peter Councilman Peter Brown from Linden he's a councilman
and they have one D-R-E for the City of Linden so it's that's clearly an unintended consequence that
people are not looking at.
Yes Congressman when you were in Congress
tell the audience how important it was to receive feedback from your constituents.
Um, well obviously, um
you know it was a different time when we were all agreed on the facts
the only thing that differentiated us is our opinions.
Now we have to not only argue our opinions but we have to argue well which set of facts are you using.
We're really living in a different time as you know Mary Pat it's a it's a very
troubling because there's a lot of dissembling of the facts and people just
taking those facts that they want and then making the argument that they want.
So you know I, I just have to say I was blessed in Rhode Island it was such a
obviously a small state in the country very intimate I know South Jersey has a lot of that
everybody's knows each other related to each other and so forth went to school with each other.
So there was a very for me because I had a lot of
I mean I was suffering from from alcoholism addiction myself and mental
illness throughout my time in Congress but I had this great wellspring of
support because you know they were like helping me along you know like they knew
I was fighting for this thing called parity they knew that it was important
that someone do it and someone do it that had the experience that I had.
And um and basically I think I was always in a place where I was you know helping my
constituents and they recognized that I was on the appropriations committee.
There was this great story about Willy Sutton the great historic bank robber
and they asked him at one point why did he rob the banks and he said because
that's where the money is.
And uh people ask why was I on the
Appropriations Committee because that's where the money is. And I so I was able
to really support my constituents. We had a lot of issues that were important to
the national security principally because of the the Navy being in Newport,
Rhode Island. And a lot of military folks. I succeeded a guy was a captain in the
Navy and um
Don't you think that it's it's important for people to reach out to
their legislators? But in this context our state legislators. I certainly know
when I was in the legislature, it really does make a difference when I hear from
my constituents when I hear from the people that I represent.
Well you know to, in the state legislature and that's where it really comes home because you
know Frank Depaola has a problem with you, you're in trouble you know. If George
Howe is calling you up or Evelyn Fargnoli I mean oh my God. I mean I am gonna
be in trouble you better like yeah they you better jump when they say jump. So
yeah when your local political figure you have to do everything, you answer
those calls people come in cause you know only a handful of votes can make the
difference in an election. So yes very good points and and who knows so
depending on the demographics of the congressional districts how that that
also works.
Well I think it's time for us to start taking questions. Does anyone
have any questions? I'm sure this isn't a shy Bunch you could do you want to come
down to the microphone? Or speak loudly and if you please give me your name.
State your name.
Testing. Okay good afternoon everyone my name is Krishna Patel I am a public
health student from University of Maryland, College Park, and I am currently
working as a health intern at Ringwood Health Department. Over the course of the
year I'm studying Masters in Health Policy Analysis and Evaluation and my
question is for the congressman. As a former congressman how do you think
United States as a nation can work towards increasing bipartisanship and
unity in such trying times where we have to sit here and really think over
whether we care for the youth of the nation or not. Because the current state
of the nation sounds more divided in almost everything.
Right, thank you so thanks for giving me an easy one just start off with. Solve all the world's
problems. So I've believed that a neuroscience,
study of the brain, is the most important should be the most important national
priority that our country addresses. Not only because of the real impact from
everything from autism to Alzheimer's, to addiction, to anxiety and then that's
just the ACE. I haven't even gotten into the base yeah that these illnesses of
the brain are literally taking our fellow Americans hostage and prisoner.
You know most notably our returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who
are suffering from what are known as invisible wounds of war but there's
nothing invisible about what these veterans have been suffering from which
are the signature wounds of war, post-traumatic stress and traumatic
brain injury. And they are literally in our midst as prisoners of war, now if
they were over in Iraq we would be sending in SEAL Team six to go bring
them home. But now that they got back we're like "Hey you made it home fine" and
we're not doing what we need to do to save them from the
three suicides by our nation's veterans every single day in America. We lose more
Americans in the military to suicide than killed in action. And that's just
our veterans, so you want to talk about how to build that bipartisan support I
would say get me any Republican, and I'd have a hard time finding Republican that
wouldn't support doing something for the veterans if their to be true to their
rhetoric. That they're all about America and all about our veterans. And then I
would say to them if you think what a soldier saw in Iraq caused trauma what
happens to a child growing up in Paterson who sees a shooting and that
child doesn't have the same psychological preparation that one of
our military members does. So what happens to all of those millions of
children going up in America today that watch one parent strike another in
domestic violence. What kind of trauma is that setting off in those children, and
by the way they have no you know psychological resilience courses like
our members of the military have. So I would say that in this day and age the
thing that is going to differentiate my children's ability to compete in the
world, is their ability to be able to navigate stressful situations, to cope
with stressful situations, to problem-solve
in a productive way, and by the way those are all skills that aren't being taught
in our schools. And then and I'm happy to say my wife Amy is leading the charge I
mean some schools are doing, excuse me, but the 99 percent of public education
in America does nothing to address our children's mental health through social
emotional learning, and they need to. And for those that are out there doing this
thank you for being leaders in this space because we need
more of you. So from that brain development phrase to how do we
understand the way the brain works so that we can better tackle how to address
addiction, how to address dementia, how to address learning disabilities, I believe
we can do miraculous things in terms of neuroscience. So over fifty years ago
President Kennedy led the nation to go to the moon and he said that we were
gonna do it in ten years and we did it in ten years. I think we need a president
to make that same declaration, but to understand the brain. And that's gonna
cost us a lot of money, I'm just here to tell you, it's gonna cost us a lot of
money. And that's that's something that scares politicians but I would say that
we should float a savings bond, like we did in World War two to fight the Nazis
and to fight the fascists. We did whatever it took to win the war, and my
view our survival as a nation as a first-rate nation is really going to be
at stake directly proportional to our ability to better understand, treat, and
help those who suffer from neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative
disorders. And our whole health care system is going to get sunk by this
issue. Our lifetime expectancy it's going to be impacted, our success in education
is going to be impacted, our success in our criminal justice systems reforms
going to be impacted, our success in our economy is going to be impacted. Central
to our existence as a nation will be whether we're going to rise to the
challenge and make understanding of our mental health and our neuroscience a top
national priority.
From your lips to God's ears. Seriously, questions?
So mine has to do with decriminalization and legalization
So with decriminalization without legalization of the sale distribution would ultimately fall into criminal
enterprises. So how do you what would be
the recommendation to handle that?
Thank you with keeping social justice activism in mind
because we know who is targeted by the criminal justice system.
So yeah that's a common question. And it makes sense you know like why why why if we do
criminalize we're going to leave the drug sale you know of drugs to drug
dealers right? But just just FYI legalization is not going to stop that
the black market is still going to be there. In fact, it's actually gonna thrive
even more with legalization because people aren't going to want to
buy things from or marijuana from your dispensaries they both still want to buy
from their Street dealer because it may or may not be be cheaper. But I do think
that it's important to focus on decriminalization so that we can take our
time and figure out how to do legalization the right way. Like I said I
know people want to smoke their marijuana that people
love weed, I get that you know, but I think it's important to to address the
possible negative health effects that are going to come when you start
commercializing marijuana. It's important to understand your state legislators are
allowing big marijuana and private the private industry to come and start
dictating policy. And that's very very dangerous. So I think if we're, like
governor Murphy is saying, if we're going to make this a social justice issue
since he is all about social justice, let's focus on decriminalizing first. People are I think
New Jersey has one of the highest rates of arrest rates in regards to marijuana
possession. Right? So we need to address that. The people of color are impacted
more by that then you know than any of the groups we need to address that.
I think the decriminalization will help with addressing that if you do it the
right way. And then later on if we want to talk about legalization we can do
that but do it safely and very restrictive.
Good evening or good afternoon thank you for this most important forum.
I think it's very unique, this topic because it brings together,
I am president of the NJ conservative GOP, it brings conservatives
lines with the Kennedy.
Oh god. Try not to tell anybody.
Vladamir Lenin said "Give me one generation of the youth and I'll
transform the world" so I think there's something more going on with this
just a couple brief points and then two questions. We were talking about the
taxation that's what the legislators push the taxation taxation and if you
look at Colorado, the very small percent of the taxes goes to fighting this
problem it goes to mostly law enforcement and bureaucracy so it's a
loser as far as taxes. And in New Jersey oddly enough the use of marijuana,
with the youth, is very small at this point.
Guess what state has the largest 17 and under, Colorado.
And you mentioned the black-market.
Boy if it becomes legalized in New Jersey this is the perfect place for it.
Being a sanctuary city where do you think MS-13 is gonna come to sell their wares?
Do you have a question?
Yeah, question is we have forums like this, our groups had meetings.
How do we get, this is the facts are on our side no doubt.
But the big money's on the other side.
How do we get our message over that role of budgets
they have to get their message out how do we fight that?
And Congressman Kennedy what's your relationship with Governor Murphy?
So I have conveyed my position on this to the Governor.
You know after he first got sworn in I was in on his transition team on health care.
But I'm still waiting for his administration to do something
on my recommendations that they are not the
were 10 worst state in the nation following a federal law.
I mean it's it's you know frankly know not to cast no aspersions to some states you know in
the south, you would not expect New Jersey to be one of the ten worst states
in the country on a Federal Medical Equal Rights Law that requires that
these illnesses of the brain be treated the same and not force people out of
network so much in order to and pay have to pay more to gain access to these services.
So I think he needs to separate the Division of Banking and Insurance
and make it about insurance so that there's not this big cluster of issues
that that director has to worry about.
The the director should be director of insurance
and they should be responsible for holding the insurance companies accountable to the law.
If they cannot provide equal coverage to the people of New Jersey
then get out of New Jersey we don't want you selling your insurance in
this state if it's not adhering to Federal Law even let alone New Jersey Law.
And why no one's doing anything about that
I don't know so, so that's an issue that ostensibly we agree on.
The issue that we don't agree on is obviously commercialization of marijuana.
So I am in a little bit of a box here because I can't frankly my big big target is
accountability under the federal law I had an opportunity to sponsor that's my number one priority.
No no offense to my friends in the
posing marijuana as you can tell I feel very strongly about that too.
But I can't even get any momentum going with the Governor on on that so.
And and I there's all kinds of ways to negotiate.
And I mean it would seem to me he might want to do something about parity.
How do we counteract the prosign that has all the funds
By educating ourselves and that's you know I say we're the little engine that could.
So I would say rather than I think the business community has been relatively silent on this.
The Chambers of Commerce have really been falling down on this issue.
And the big businesses all these hospitals first and foremost all the hospital systems in New Jersey ought to
be phoning Governor Murphy right now and saying listen this is going to jam
our emergency rooms even more than they're already jammed with all kinds of
psychosis and other you know ancillary effects to commercialized product.
We've seen it already in in Colorado so you know and then you could go on.
Then I'd take the photo of how they can't get enough drug free workers.
and I would get that data and I'd sent it all around to businesses in this state.
And say why aren't you business owners calling the governor and saying that
this is something that's of importance to you.
In other words it's building that kind of coalition that we really need to build.
Because I think that those voices from the Chamber
would really ring heavily in the Governor's office mm-hmm thank you.
My name is Teresa and I'm an advocate for brain disease in Washington and I live in Pennsylvania.
Patrick, your work for advocates for recovery is really bipartisan with speaker Gingrich and engines.
So I'm wondering with the plan, I'm finding on the ground in Pennsylvania
that there is huge bipartisan support for what you're doing
over the long term for those major banks. I'm wondering on the drug court issue
I'm seeing real bipartisan approach happening at the district judge level in
Pennsylvania at the doors amongst Republican, Democrat, Independent voters.
And I'm wondering if you could discuss those relationships.
I think Theresa it's a great point.
You know I love the fact that Pennsylvania's got the pathways to pardons to.
So they're they're doing all kinds of criminal justice reforms
But a lot of this is, it's education of the local law enforcement.
And where we need to do it both for the addiction crisis and the mental health crisis.
Because frankly there's got to be greater literacy
amongst the potential arresting officer for example that the person is suffering
hallucinations due to some kind of a schizoaffective disorder
as much as there may be on addicted.
So in both cases they need to know how to respond.
And there are now new paradigms for law enforcement to respond not by arresting
but by making sure these individuals get access to treatment and and and get a
treatment facility to see them so then they're not also in languishing in these ER's
So and there's there's going to be real impact in terms of addressing our
overall numbers and our jails and prisons.
If we can stop people from getting the original arrest.
And there's all kinds of pre arrest and pre adjudication so.you can even do so much.
In in Rhode Island we had a Veterans Court in addition to,
yeah we had a Veterans Court in addition to a Drug Court and a Mental Health Court.
Happy to say I got those all funded.
And it was because I believe that Veterans, there was amazing I got all the police officers
coming up to me and say can you do something because we're arresting our fellows.
Because in Rhode Island we had the number one percentage of Law Enforcement
serving in Military Police in Iraq and Afghanistan of any state in the country.
And they were all part of our local police departments and
when they got back from Iraq guess what they were doing, They were arresting each other.
Because no one was treating the post-traumatic stress and TBI so.
And now they have their own docket of issues and they're familiar and the judges are
sharp to what the issues are so they can also hold them accountable.
And there's more treatment and understanding there.
So I think, listen let's be honest.
A lot of our criminal justice system are people who are suffering from from
untreated mental illness and untreated addiction and if we can get our handle
on that we do a lot to address a lot of issues including the over-representation
I think of minorities in our criminal justice system because the greater
awareness overall about all of these issues I think will be very positive.
I'm seeing bi-partisan support at the local, state and federal level on those issues.
Around TBI, PTS and around district [inaudible] citizens understand at the door how district judges affect them.
And if you sit in a three hour session of any district court in any state in America, in any city, any borough.
It's all addiction cases.
Just spend three hours doing that it's a real education I'd like them to be televised
so people would get continued get that message.
I wanted to thank you Patrick on the sensitivity that you and Amy expressed in your social media
on Demi Lovato's setback I think those are real opportunities to educate America on
forgiveness, compassion, tenacity, recovery and I hope you'll continue to do that.
I know she's done great work with NAMI National Alliance for Mental Illness.
I think those type of compassionate opportunities are important for all of us
and I thank you for modeling that.
Thank you very much Theresa.
And I just want to add to I think it's important I'm a social worker so
I'm gonna speak from the mental health perspective I think it's important to, to
start normalizing mental health on treatment in this country I think we
normalized drug addiction or we drug drug use too much that we think it's to
go to answer to dealing with underlying issues but I think that people shouldn't
you know the first time that people seek drug treatment or mental health
shouldn't be after they've been arrested.
You know we have a you know we're starting to see a lot of support for drug courts and I understand that but
drug, drug, drug courts and their mandatory drug treatments and mandatory
you know mental health treatments but I think that we need to do a better job in
preventing that from even happening renting if me been getting to the point
where they're entering the criminal justice system and now they're doing
this because they're mandated.
People should really have the access to want to
engage in drug abuse treatment or mental health treatment.
Thank you very much for today for taking your time I wish we had these more frequently throughout the state.
My name can you hear me okay Mary Pat and I have known each other for a
very long time my name is Alyssa [inaudible] and I'm a licensed clinical
alcohol and drug counselor I'm also a student assistance counselor a SAC in
Monmouth County School and there are SACs across the entire state of new
jersey within your school systems just be aware of that so if you know of
anyone struggling and any youth struggling with addiction it's really
important to reach out to your sac in your local school so my concern is youth
of course and I also am a part of a new collaborative called the New Jersey
youth rite-of-passage impact of marijuana legalization rite meaning rite.
because we know that when parental use when family members use we are and
when just by setting a law we are giving kids whether we want to whether we want
to admit it or not you're giving kids the rite of passage we really have to be real about that.
So just to give a couple of statistics and then I'm going to
follow with a question so Dr. Maurice Houston states he did his research and
he say that's six that adolescence are six times more likely to use pot simply
because of parental attitude or in-difference.
Adolescence heavy teen use of marijuana results in an eight point decrease in IQ
daily teen users are 60% less likely to complete high school, seven times more
likely to attempt suicide and eight times more likely to use other drugs.
So with the transparency on the state level my concern is what is
the discussion if the governor is planning on the legislature is planning
on legalizing marijuana what are they talking about in terms of how to address
all the new addiction issues that are going to arise in the near future
because I'll be honest with everyone in this room when the governor with all due
respect when the governor announced over a year ago that he was going to legalize
marijuana New Jersey schools across the entire state all of us Sacs saw an
increase in vaping within the schools.
I'm sure that at least 75% of you in this room
have are aware of that are aware of the vaping that goes on in the schools.
So with that being said we're and this year this year it really ramped
up for us in the schools so with that being said we're very concerned once it
once it becomes legalized this is going to get out of control very quickly.
Yeah, I know it's I can feel your frustration, I share your frustration.
The facts should matter.
The data should mean something, that's what we pay for it for that's why we invest in it
is because we hope that if we get the data that it actually informs policy.
So it's very troubling that it's not happening
and in spite of the data a very intelligent, thoughtful, well-meaning
person in the governor has been co-opted by this, this impression that everybody is
for this and frankly I think that that's a bad reason to do something that really
has deleterious impact when you've got the trust responsibility for the people
the state that you're in charge of.
One but I think I could say for a fact I'm doing what I can
listen I, I you know as you saw I've got five, five kids and I
love what living in New Jersey I stood up in my little Brigantine town council
thank God they decided not to permit the retailing of this and so forth.
But and wherever I can help I'm helping.
I can say for a fact
that in five years from now people who supported this are going to regret that they supported this.
Because Colorado is already regretting it.
Listen Hickenlooper is backtracking as fast as he can backtrack and he's
running for President United States where he's gonna have his hands full.
Tried now for if he's got a race of twenty people running in the Democratic Primary,
which it looks as though he'll have then maybe he'll be able to run on
this somehow because he'll have that you know lane of people that's you know who
we know right on the left.
But um this is just bad bad bad there's no other way
when you look at that science listen I'm not I know I get worked up about this
but I'm listening to the director of the most important and greatest research
institution in the world on drug research the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
And Nora Volkow is aren't equivocal on this issue so you know I
say to myself you know I it doesn't make sense to me kind of knowing what I know
about addiction you know just because I'm someone who is in recovery I know this stuff.
But when I listen to the experts and by the way there is no one
on the scientific research side major medical institutions that contravenes
the fact that commercialization is bad for this country.
So I don't know in light of all of that the fact is they haven't been willing to step it up as much
to the previous gentleman's points these chambers of commerce have just
been laying down and they're gonna be directly impacted these hospitals laying
down they're gonna be directly impacted they need to put some money behind this honest to god.
Mary Pat knows if you want to fight asuccessful campaign you need money
and unfortunately no one's been willing save a few to really put some real dollars behind this.
Knowing
I'm sorry just but just real quickly the good news is in New Jersey Governor Murphy
did come in and say within the first hundred days of his administration
that marijuana would be legalized so we pushed it back to now it's over he's
it's 205 days he's been in office so we have been able to push the rock up the hill.
Thank you very much Alyssa, thank you.
Couple more questions we have time for.
Good evening um, my name is Dr. Inua Momodu I'm from Atlantic Care I'm the Chairman of Psychiatry
in Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center and I'm a child Psychiatrist
Um, Psychiatrist and Child Psychiatrist and I do a lot of addition work um, thank you very much for this.
No, thank you doctor.
It is um, disheartening that we, in this day and age are sitting down when we know the facts of what
this is going to do to our community and our future.
It's going to [inaudible] state of our youths, we've talked a lot about the cognitive impact of this disease
the psycho-social impact, the social justice impact, what about a physically impact of this?
I mean we know THC has more carcinogen and cigarettes nobody's talking about that we also know
that the nicotine nicotine content or THC also causes a lot of
vasoconstriction and then leads to more cardiac disease increases in strokes
decreases in lung function so there is not just a psychological impact
initially there is an actual physical impact of this disease there are going
to be more increases in diseases that are not even psychologically related who
don't want to go into the issue of [inaudible] use we will say oh decrease anxiety
that is true chronic use increase anxiety ten times more we forget all the negative impacts he's
gonna have on us and yet we for commercial reasons are allowing this to happen.
My question is, is it too late?
Can we [inaudible] this in New Jersey?
Well first doctor thank you for really elucidating in a way that was so
powerful I just I'm glad this was being recorded
your synopsis of the impact of this vis a vis thinks that even I'm not familiar
with in terms of the carcinogens in this the vascular impact of THC and the like
very enlightening and given the fact that not only you psychiatrist and
Director of Atlantic Care but you're also a child psychologist a psychiatrist and
you by the way child psychiatrists are the most endangered um, professionals around
they're just I mean there are just too few of you and we are so blessed that
you came and it was a very impactful that you're here today I hope those that
are reporting on this event make note of the fact that you were here I think it
makes a big difference in terms of the validity of what's being imparted to
this audience so with that it is easy to feel frustrated and I might add not just
on this issue but in the state of the world as it is today given what's going
on in Washington and around the world it's very easy to feel very overwhelmed.
and just wanting to go and hide, right because it feels like this is too much for me to take on.
But all I can say is we can't control the world, all we can do is control our little piece of it.
and we're only responsible for doing what we can do.
In your life doctor you are knocking it out, in what you're able to do in your life.
and all we can be responsible for as citizens is to do out part.
So and we always have to try to do more and do better.
I think of enough of us continue to do it who knows there will be some victories
and as Mary Pat said let's count the ones we already have because actually it
is a reflection of the great pushback that the state's not run into this
already within the first hundred days um, and, and we're gonna have more elections
and people this thing is there is an a ripple effect.
From today and from other events like this that we can't immediately know.
So all you can say is I hope that there was something that comes from this that can somehow in a small
way help reduce the chances that this actually ends up happening.
So we shouldn't throw up our hands and I thank you for doing your part to stand up.
[applause]
My name is Adam Lush Ambrosia Treatment Center, we provide treatment for substance abuse
um, Congressman I wanted to thank you first for your work with [inaudible] I've been involved
with [inaudible] and the [inaudible] Coalition
I'm on a provider work group we're trying to get information from providers out to Congress
So can inform the decisions they're making regarding parody legislation um.
My real question prevention and I taught in schools I really went around teaching prevention
and I talked to a lot of you know young kids about substance use my own
experience I was addicted to marijuana from age 13 to 19 and when I would talk
to these students it's I'm seeing the parallels here.
It's like the state is a you know 16 year old kid who I'm saying it might not be a good idea for you to
try marijuana because there's going to be consequences down the road.
And this legislation is anti-prevention it's the opposite of that.
So you know looking at I'd really you know interested in your comment on how this
anti-prevention legislation is going to manifest into these consequences
down the road and particularly based on you know what I'm based in in treatment
the cost of treatment because the cost of treatment right now to do it well is
very resource intensive and that's the challenge trying to get people enough
resources that needed to get the treatment that they need.
So if that's increasing the demand increasing the need for treatment and
making it more challenging for people to find long-term and lasting recovery
you know what's that cost going to turn into and how does this anti-prevention
legislation cost us in the long run.
So as we both know an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
and we need a system in healthcare where we screen
people for high-risk and we need to factor in the ACE study the adverse childhood experience.
We have to factor in family history of addiction,
you know they ask us do we have a family history of cardiovascular disease or cancer but
why aren't our doctors asking us if we have a family history of mental illness
or addiction or alcoholism my point is is that the best way to treat addiction is to prevent it.
That's, that often not said amongst the treatment field like the best treatment is actually prevention.
Cost pennies on the dollar
and its impact is far greater and frankly it goes in line with psychosis
like the best treatment for schizophrenia is to treat it right away
but we let people with schizophrenia have multiple psychotic incidences
before we even wrap our arms around them and say listen let's get you some help.
When if we've given them the help but the first time they would have
permanently been better off in terms of their life course with the illness right
because it would have prevented the D the the pathology of the illness from
taking place same with addiction, same with mental illness, we need to be in
early by the way that this is the standard for care for cancer.
It's stage one.
But in our illness we wait until you get really really bad you know, stage four
and then we say listen let's see if we can get you some help, can you talk to anybody
um, by the way where's a treatment center that I can afford and that it's in network.
And you're up a creek.
So our fundamental thinking on this has to change, yes we need treatment for the
people who are really ill today with addiction but our long-term plan ought to be
Making brain health part of overall health so that we have a quote checkup from the neck up.
That's my big campaign across the lifecycle and that
we have brain health kind of barometers that you can get a scale and then you
throughout your life just like they do with kids trying to prevent concussions.
They know what their baseline is in case they do get a concussion we need the
same across the lifecycle and the fact that insurance is not reimbursing for
this, CMS is not reimbursing for this, that the brain the most important
organ in the body is not getting attention is shocking in this day and age.
So I'm just thank you for your advocacy for prevention it's really well founded.
Hi my name is JD Mullane I'm a local columnist for the Burlington County Times
newspaper in Willingboro and thanks for the opportunity for
allowing me to to speak to you today.
I was wondering if you thank all of this legalizing weed 6,400 Americans dead last year from opioid addiction
are really symptoms of something deeper and in America and
something that's really not discussed all that often and that's a crisis of spirit,
a spiritual crisis um, you know our our houses of worship are clergy failing
us like so many other ones revered institutions in this in this great
country and if not what possible program or policy from the government can help?
[inaudible] thought on that.
Um, first of all I 110 percent agree with
your preposition proposition that it's we have a psychic pain.
Kay.
So I believe that a lot of people were prescribed oxycontin because they didn't have
access to antidepressants and frankly their pain that was really physical was
really there's a lot of psychosomatic which was really result to the fact the
economy fell out in 2008 and which is when this thing really took off people
feel like their financial futures are uncertain which they are.
They don't see anyone in Washington leading on an economy that includes people and gives
people ladders like chutes and ladders remember that game it's all chutes
No ladders for people to get the next rung up get training and to participate an
economy where wealth is being concentrated more and more in fewer and fewer hands.
And even now the Congress was thinking about reducing the capital gains
after they gave two trillion dollars 95% went to the top five percent in America.
That's the real outrage in all this and then you
wonder why people are working harder multiple jobs feeling frustrated can't
get ahead they got lots of childcare issues housing issues health care costs
everything and they're overwhelmed and they're anxious.
And I think that kind of psychic pain is is definitely something that is real and I do think the fact
that there is no compassion for people who are who are suffering out there in
general like you said there's a void in terms of our our spiritual connectedness.
I think the the same thing the, the happening to minorities with the
criminal justice system which we see play out over and over again tragically
one YouTube video after the next same thing we see with our Hispanic brothers
and sisters who are being stigmatized because they're all monolithic illegal
alien and and the same way we see other minority groups stigmatize.
I think there's a general sense that you know we're all but for the grace of God that next target group.
You know and I think it's incumbent upon us to have a shift
in our psyche as a nation to think of all of us as brothers and sisters it's
not a it sounds kind of trite but it just goes to the spiritual element that
you're you're asking about because if we can't treat each other as we ourselves
would want to be treated then guess what we're all in trouble.
In a world that is coming apart because of all of these other forces and so I think it does at
the end of the rest with a very strong moral compass
and by the way whatever religion or faith those religions all have the same architecture, which is the Golden Rule.
Treat others as you yourself would want to be treated that's a pretty
good one list that you don't need to go down the list of Commandments or the
seven deadly sins just treat one another and that would kind of get us off to the right start.
And I frankly hope that we're going to get more people to talk
about the need I know in recovery today um, my life is better than it's ever been
because I'm present for my children I'm faithful to my wife.
Um, I. I try to help people around me I'm conscious as to whether I succeed in any of that on a
given day I am I always succeed on being faithful to my wife [laughter].
But I'm serious like there's those seven deadlies were arrived at for thousands of years
you know pride, anger, envy, you know lust, gluttony, sloth you'll have to fill me in
on the two that I just left but the the bottom line is they're pretty good
guideposts and just for life and they don't have to belong to any particular
religion and I know that if I weren't able to being 12-step recovery I would have no guide for life.
Honest to god I would have no guide for life even though I go to church and
everything else there's nothing that speaks to me like God speaks to me through my house.
But Patrick you know our church the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
get something like a half a billion dollars from federal and state
governments every year and they're not talking about this.
So I just spoke to Cardinal Cupich the day before yesterday
Cardinal Cupich is perhaps one or two of his holiness his best friends
he's the archbishop the Cardinal of Chicago and he has been at every one of
my events on this and he has family issues.
And he's been willing to be out
there amongst it and lead with all of his pastors on this and he's I mean not
for nothing he's going to talk to the Holy Father about this I said they had
this big vatican thing on health care okay they sponsor all kinds of events
but there's this big thing on health care I haven't seen anything having to
do with addiction or mental illness right and he said I'm gonna go around
snoop around the bag going over there see the Holy Father twice in September
and I'm gonna go ask him about you know whether there isn't something we can do
about this I'm just saying we all have to keep pushing and I I was lucky that I
got asked by my church to speak at St. Thomas in Brigantine about addiction
and I said to his Eminence Cardinal Cupich you know when are the pastors
going to ask those of us in recovery in our churches to help our fellows in
recovery because guess what after I spoke I've been inundated in the year
since I spoke at Saint Thomas by my fellow parishioners at St. Thomas Church
in Brigantine with their family stories and history and they they didn't have
any place to go in their church and that shouldn't be the case.
So when I'm filling out my Catholic strong after just having
maxed out on my bishops appeal you know I want to make sure that you know that
the the church is doing something on these issues because they need a step up
for their sake and for ours.
You're absolutely right about that and they don't they're not you know they're leaving us
they're leaving government to handle these these problems I had coffee with
Senator Casey I'm from Bucks County PA and he drops by so often he told me
that you know it's a spiritual crisis and there really isn't anything the
government can do they can only do so much and beyond that you know his lives
get more secular they get more anxious and then we see all these problems but
the question remains what do we do?
I mean if you got a push Cupich you know
on of Francis's hand-picked guys to talk about this in the city of Chicago the
the priorities are really screwed up because 64,000 Americans dead more than
all that were killed in Vietnam that's just the one yes so what's gonna happen
in this year and I'll tell you I live in Levittown PA that bastion of that land
of milk and honey for that post-war generation that you're uncle Jack so well
represented and outside our ambulance squad on new Falls Road they have a marque
it used to have advertised handbag bingo and pancake breakfasts for the last
three years it's recorded the number of overdoses and the deaths from those
overdoses and driving here today passed it something since January first it's
283 overdoses this is middle class America and 14 deaths.
So by the end a year it's probably going to be 600 and probably about 30 which is what it was
last year and year before that and I think our clergy have a role in this.
Our houses of worship have role in this, our church has a role in this and they're
completely silent we're virtually silent I'm sure they're people toiling in the
vineyards but what can we do about it I mean we
talking about programs these are all wonderful things can fact
Governor Murphy but because you know what's coming down the pike
once recreational weed comes online in this state and in my state New York and
Delaware you know but those guys I don't know what they're doing this is their
wheelhouse spiritual anxious.
Yes, no, thank you, thank you.
We have time commitment because there's another event coming in right at 3 o'clock I believe.
So if you could just ask Sure
My name is Laurie Smith I work for
a lady prevention resources coordinator drug-free grant here in Atlantic County
and my question is things that the federal government could be doing that
they're not and I know they've rescinded the Cole memo they have stopped the
marijuana industry within the banking industry and you know removing the
Canadian investment what about like we did it in 1980 with
rate removing Highway Traffic Safety funding from states that did not raise
the drinking age to 21 so the states that have legalized it why not begin
removing that funding from those states or other things that could be done on a federal level?
I love that thinking that's a that's a big hammer that
politically would never in my view probably have much chance given the
uphill battle we have just stopping this stuff in the first place just knowing
the politics in America right now but I love your thinking and we need to have a
creative thought process in terms of what new policies can slow this down or
put us in a better position to stop it right so I love your points on all that.
I would say at the Kennedy Forum dot-org people can get a members guide for
members of Congress it's a very 101 rough outline of a whole host of issues
having to do with mental health and addiction not particularly legalization
per se but just a whole host of things and so we have to keep pushing back and
I I thank you for doing I would say that on this parity thing for example there
are innovative ways we can put pressure locally
like if a company has an insurance company that gets a bad rating on parity
then you can put a leaflet out one morning to all the employees going in
saying did you know that your health insurer has got a bad rating on in terms
of guaranteeing equal access for mental health and addiction.
That would really go right up to the c-suite level pretty quickly and get them to rethink what
insurance company they have and what they're telling that insurance company
they want them to cover because I guarantee most employees do not know
that their employer sponsored healthcare is very deficient when it comes to
guaranteeing equal access to mental health and addiction as it would
guarantee access for some other physical illness, so I think there that we have to
come at this from a lot of layers you've got to do the prevention but we
presumably if you're here and you don't want to see this thing commercialize for
those of you who are here for that reason that we also have to be about
treatment and early intervention mints people say oh it's going to cost us a
lot of money to treat well until the insurance company has the liability of
having to pay for treatment they're never going to pay for
prevention because they're never gonna see that as a liability cost for them
not you know investing earlier.
So there are lots of ways that we can go at this
I would hope that people leave here feeling as if we're part of a larger
mission to keep people mentally healthy and physically healthy and that should
be a good thing for their families for our community for this state and and for
our country and that's a very noble thing to be working on I thank you for
doing for doing what you're doing.
[appause] Lets give Patrick and Ijoma a round of applause please.
I hope that that you learn something I again urge you to contact your state
legislators go to NJ - ramp org and there's a very easy one to three you can
click within two minutes you can get a letter to your legislator and I just
want to end with this quote from Margaret Mead she said,
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world indeed it is
the only thing that ever has we can change this this is not inevitable so
please help me in the fight thank you very much.
[applause]
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