Gov. Chris Christie delivered the keynote address Wednesday to a conference of doctors in Camden exploring alternatives to a rising tide of addiction and abuse of opioid pain medications.
The American Pain Society’s Turn the Tide Summit focused on exploring public-policy solutions to help regulate the prescribing and distribution of opioid pain relievers and to finding non-addictive alternatives.
“Health prescribers have to be part of the solution,” said Christie, who also leads a White House opioid crisis commission and has championed the issue in his final year in office. “We consume 85 percent of the opioid medications and we’re 4 percent of the world’s population.”