today marks International overdose Awareness Day a solemn reminder of the thousands of lives lost to the crisis and a call to action for those fighting to end it the State Department of Health today unveiled New Jersey's first new harm reduction Center in five years it's a community-based program that offers access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone along with sterile syringes and resources to get treatment and other Care New Jersey already has seven harm reduction centers but local organizations have long been stepping in to fill in the gaps raising awareness about overdose and helping those whose struggles often go unseen Melissa Rose Cooper reports from Patterson naloxone is safe it acts quickly you can't get sued if something goes wrong which nine times out of ten it will not go long um and you save someone's life that's why Bree as a NATO program manager for black lives matter Patterson says it's important everyone knows how to administer the opioid reversal drug naloxone often known as Narcan is considered to be the first line of defense in saving lives so as the NATO is helping to teach people what to do at this Narcan training session inside the organization's harm reduction Center we try to really push that it's not necessarily for you so a lot of the community members are neighbors that have the houses that live around here at first it was like well I don't use this phone I don't need it but then it's like yeah but this is our community and so if we don't want we want to make it better the Narcan training is just one-way harm reduction centers and other recovery organizations around New Jersey are marking International overdose Awareness Day the yearly campaign is meant to educate people on the effects of an opioid overdose and how to prevent it we've had 50 years of the drug war 50 less that has ripped people from their families that has taken jobs and opportunity and money from people and that has caused overdose deaths we have seen overdose deaths rise Spike dramatically in that time we've seen overdose authorized fastest far Black and Hispanic latinx resonance and so we need a New Jersey as a state alone has invested over 1.6 billion a year in that drug war so we need the equivalent investments in harm reduction just today the State Department of Health announced it's adding a new harm reduction Center that will be run by the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey the facility is the first of its kind to be approved in five years right now there are seven operating in the state one of the things that's really important to us first and foremost is that this saves lives and anything we can do to save more lives is is obviously worth doing and is is a tremendous priority for us Sarah Edelman commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Human Services says the state's naloxone 365 program which provides free anonymous access to naloxone at pharmacies has proved to be a huge success since its debut earlier this year she says they have distributed more than 47 000 kids of naloxone and over 630 pharmacies are now participating across the state overdoses continue to be a crisis in our country and here in New Jersey we wanted to get at some of the biggest barriers to continual overdoses and that is getting the reversal drug into as many hands and medicine cabinets as possible in the past New Jersey has done giveaway days throughout the year but naloxone 365 is really a way to make that possible every day of the year at pharmacies across the state so that without barriers like cost or anonymity or insurance people can get naloxone and have it on hand to help save a life starting next month Narcan will also be available for over-the-counter purchase across the country but New Jersey officials say they're committed to keeping the drug accessible for everyone saving more lives every day for NJ Spotlight News I'm Melissa Rose Cooper