Executive Director Justine Olderman speaks at NY1’s Town Hall on the NYC opioid crisis

“If we do what we’ve always done — over criminalizing, over incarcerating, carving people into those who are worthy of our compassion and those who are not, those who are worthy of treatment and those who are not — we are going to repeat the mistakes of the past. What is clear is that we need a different approach [to the opioid epidemic].”

Our Executive Director Justine Olderman spoke at a special town hall hosted by NY1, “The New York City Opioid Battle,” about the role of police & prosecutors in the opioid epidemic.

The vast majority of people we represent who are struggling with addiction are still targeted by NYPD as criminals rather than as victims of an epidemic. As she said, “We have a long way to go before the criminal justice system can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Watch it here.