Lifesaving Victories in 2023

In 2023, Not 0ne More continued to fight for these solutions over setbacks – and friends, we’ve been winning. We believe in the real, evidence-based solutions that we know work: access to care and harm reduction tools that are evidence-based, affordable, meet us where we’re at. 

No matter where we come from and who we are, we can all say we’ve been impacted by the overdose crisis and the war on drugs. But when we come together to organize, and build power as a community, we get $%&# done, and when we get $%&# done, we get the solutions we need to save lives and build a future without preventable overdose in New Jersey. For example… 

Beating back two bad bills

As part of a statewide coalition to end the War on Drugs, Not 0ne More successfully lobbied to dismiss two state bills (A5649 and S3096) that would have added extreme penalties, longer sentences, and higher likelihood of felony charges to fentanyl possession. In other words, putting people behind bars instead of focusing on real solutions. Since 1986, when New Jersey first doubled down on increasing drug penalties, drug arrests have increased by 57%, and yet this did nothing to prevent overdose deaths or address the root causes of drug use. Check out the post we wrote back when these bills were introduced for more info on why we decided to fight back against them.

And fight back we did. We testified against these bills, got our voices in the press over and over, and spoke directly with the bill sponsors Assemblyman Atkins and Senator Gopal. Because of our organizing, our representatives withdrew their support for the bills! That means they’re effectively kaput. 

That’s a huge deal. As Elissa said in her op-ed in June, “It makes sense to want to punish something that does us harm, but these penalties aren’t punishing fentanyl, and they’re not punishing the overdose crisis. They’re punishing ordinary people. No one should ever have to make the decision between calling 911 to save someone from an overdose or going to jail.”

Getting our opioid settlement money where it needs to go

In Ocean County, Not 0ne More has also been working at the local level to make sure our opioid settlement money is spent in the way that our communities decide it needs to be spent – not drug sniffing dogs or filling budget gaps that have nothing to do with the overdose crisis. New Jersey received $1.1 billion in opioid settlement funds to use over the next 18 years, and we want to guarantee they go towards evidence-based solutions. 

So that’s exactly what we did. By organizing and showing up to every single meeting of the Ocean County Opioid Advisory Council (and getting press coverage each time), we made it clear that we have our eyes on the prize and we’re not going anywhere. That’s already paying off: Sea Change RCO recently received two new grants to continue providing compassionate and evidence-based care, as well as lifesaving resources and support! One grant is from the New Jersey State Department of Health, and another was awarded by the Ocean County Opioid Advisory Council in order to provide wraparound services like 1:1 support, All Recovery support groups 7 days a week, harm reduction supplies, and healthy lifestyle events and activities.

This is especially exciting, because Sea Change has recently become the first official harm reduction center in Ocean County, and is one of the first RCOs to do so in the state! 

Vince said it best in his recent op-ed: “Grassroots organizations are not just vital for providing care, they are cost effective. Lower administrative overhead means more direct service delivery per dollar spent. Yet many of these organizations find themselves struggling for survival amid a skewed funding landscape that favors large behavioral health corporations that already have lots of money and name recognition.”

And more!

These victories aren’t the end, nor are they the beginning. We led our door-to-door canvass in Ocean and Monmouth County overdose hotspots this past spring, and we’re also making sure South Jersey isn’t left out of the equation when it comes to statewide opioid settlement funds. 

We contributed to A Roadmap for Opioid Settlement Funds: Supporting Communities & Ending the Overdose Crisis: a guide for elected officials, folks in public health, and state and county Opioid Settlement Advisory Council members on how funding can best be spent to save lives. 

The hotspot research we did into Monmouth and Ocean county overdose rates has influenced how the news covers overdose in New Jersey – check us out in KFF Health News (a national news outlet!) and the Press of Atlantic City. It’s been a great year for Not 0ne More in the news overall, with over 20 articles in 2023 alone, and reporters looking to Not 0ne More members as experts in our experiences and the issues that affect us (psst… we always upload them to read for free on our website). 

We did all of this together, as a community of people on the frontlines of this crisis. Thank you for a fantastic year – and looking forward to keeping this energy going in 2024!