BRANCHBURG - For New Jersey acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman the war against drug addiction is personal.

Hoffman has a relative who has battled addiction.

"That really hit me as to what struggle that she faces every single day. To overcome that for 10 years, that's someone we should revere and not fear. Someone who frankly has the strength of character and the fortitude that I think is incomprehensible to most of us," Hoffman said Thursday during the annual Professional Fall Conference presented by the Safe Communities Coalition of Hunterdon/Somerset and Hunterdon Prevention Resources.

The conference, held at Raritan Valley Community College here, offered an opportunity for experts in drug policy, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and law enforcement to address the challenges today's youth face, as well as learn about drug trends. Speakers included Helen Hernandez, administrator for Drug-Free Communities Support Program, part of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Boise, Idaho, Police Officer Jermaine Galloway, a nationally recognized drug awareness instructor. Hoffman served as the keynote speaker.

"New Jersey generally has the highest degree of heroin purity in the country," Hoffman said. "What that means is that in New Jersey, heroin is snorted and doesn't have to just be injected. And so it transforms heroin from this nasty backroom sort of shooting-up room to one in which it can be snorted in bathrooms, or at parties, and all of a sudden it starts to look like the '70s at Studio 54. And that's one of the big problems that we face in New Jersey."

He said that because of the state's location and form of commerce, a lot of heroin travels through New Jersey and the purity of it is one of the biggest issues his office struggles with.

He said the war on drugs is not just a law-enforcement issue but is attacked from a multidimensional, holistic perspective or else the fight will fail.

For Hoffman, there are four principles connected to fighting drug addiction — being smart, opportunistic, aggressive and compassionate.

On the state level, a drug monitoring initiative has been developed to find out where the problem exists in the state with hospitals, emergency medical technicians and law enforcement reporting to a database and getting the information to the rest of the state so drug trends can be identified and resources smartly deployed.

With the drug monitoring initiative, Hoffman said, the state can identify and track the source of drugs throughout the state and bring cases against those who supply drugs to people who die.

He said a pain management council of doctors, pharmacists, social workers has been assembled to come up with guidelines on how to balance pain management without abuse of opiates. He said the "road to death" can involve someone being given a prescription for pain management drugs, becoming hooked on the prescription, which becomes too expensive and they switch to heroin because it's cheaper.

Hoffman said the state has to be aggressive toward those who are "peddling death," those who take advantage of the vulnerable, and need to be prosecuted and put in prison.

He said there has to be compassion for those whose hearts and souls can't fight off the power of addiction.

Hoffman said he supports getting Narcan to all law-enforcement officers.

"It saves lives," said Hoffman, adding it sends a message that no one is being left behind. "We are all in this together and there is no one we are taking for granted. We will save every life we can. We will give everyone a shot at redemption."

Hoffman initiated uniform statewide enforcement of the Overdose Prevention Act, known as the Good Samaritan Act, which means those who seek help for someone overdosing will not be prosecuted.

He also considers drug courts to be compassionate.

Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said heroin is a tremendously big problem.

"It is so cheap and so plentiful. Law-enforcement officers will tell you it's all over the place. And there is nothing but individuals overdosing. They are deploying Narcan at an exceptional level," said Soriano, noting that a few weeks ago, police took 20,000 heroin folds off the street. "The numbers are staggering."

Flemington Police Officer Frank Emanuele said that as a law-enforcement officer, he is trained in the use of Narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of a heroin overdose.

Emanuele said he gave Narcan to an individual experiencing shallow breathing and a weak heart rate from a heroin overdose on Feb. 1. Within about five minutes of receiving the dose, the individual regained consciousness and was transported to a hospital.

"Narcan is just another tool in the toolbox. It's not the catch-all. It doesn't prevent deaths. But if we catch it in the right time frame, it allows us to reverse those effects of heroin," said Emanuele, a two-year veteran of the police department.

Since police officers began using Narcan, Flemington has had five successful deployments of the drug,  with three occurring this year, he said.

Galloway, who at 6-foot-9 is known as "The Tall Cop," told those attending the conference that you have to know what you're looking at when it comes to drugs.

He identified the different strains of marijuana with emphasis on a hybrid strain derived from THC oil from marijuana plants creating a higher potency, that some have compared to heroin. He said butane lighters in your local convenience store can be used to extract the oil. And the end product doesn't look or smell like marijuana, he said. It can look like apple sauce, peanut butter or oil, and shatter, which is considered the most purified form, can be odorless.

"It makes it difficult to identify, he said.

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335;

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