this week a delegation from New Jersey is in the nation's capital for an annual conference that looks at ways to fight against drug abuse and more widely the opioid crisis New Jersey aims to be a leader in that space and a recent study conducted at Morristown Medical Center finds the State's new policies on opioids are moving the needle the research looked at a 2017 law limiting opioid prescription practices and a mandated conversation between patients and providers about the risks in involved the findings were exactly what folks like Angelo Valente the executive director at partnership for drug-free New Jersey hoped for Angelo joins me now from the conference in DC Angelo Valente thank you so much for joining me um let me ask you first about what was discovered once it was looked into um the prescribing methods since 2017 since the changes were made in New Jersey what did this study find well what was very interesting was that despite the fact that there was less prescribing of opiates uh at the Morristown Medical Center uh during between 2016 and 2018 when the study was first conducted that there wasn't any real impact on patients pain management and the reason this is crucial is because for many years uh patients who were involved with post-operative care or many other reasons accidents that might have occurred uh they would have been described a large amount a 30-day supply of opiates and what we've learned is that it only takes 5 days for opiate dependency to set in so the fact now that uh we're seeing less prescriptions being implemented as a result of the law that took place that was first instituted in 2017 I think is a real step in the right direction in reversing the trends we've seen unfortunately for the last decade plus does fewer pills uh out in the public public though translate to less of a crisis well I think what we'll see is less dependency over the long term because we know the dependency has set in as a result of the large numbers of prescriptions that were being filled and utilized so I think we will see positive results and this law that took place in 2017 in New Jersey was also unique in that not only that it limit the number of prescriptions from a from to five days for the first prescription being issued it also required that a prescriber and that could be a doctor a nurse practitioner or a dentist in many cases that they were required to have a conversation with the patient or the parents of patients under the age of 18 to share with them The Addictive quality of the drug they were receiving and in Morristown at the medical center not only did they look at limiting the number of prescriptions but in many cases they looked at Alternatives non-opiate Alternatives uh to to address coupan yeah I mean the prescribing is one part of it right but the education around it is a whole other component um which your organization has been dedicated to are we making more inroads when it comes to that and the way that we're approaching it oh absolutely uh in fact since the 2017 law uh what we also have studied is how uh prescribers were responding to this law and prior to 2017 about 20% of prescribers were having this educational conversation at the time of first prescribing and also looking at Alternatives that increased over 90% in 2019 when a second study was conducted specifically looking at the educational component of the 2017 lore what we have done is we have created a continuing medical education program for prescribers in New Jersey and it's a great way for us to be able to share this crucial information not not only to the patient but also to the individual who's making that determination about a prescription or an alternative to opian Angelo Valente is the executive director of the partnership for a drug-free New Jersey Angelo thanks so much thank you so much for this opportunity