Map Shows Location Of Nearly 2,000 Opioid Deaths In New Jersey

The opioid crisis continues to get worse in New Jersey, and now there's a map that help bring it to light.

NJ Advance Media published an interactive map that shows each opioid-related death in 2016 and identifies the lethal dose behind each one (see below).

Readers can click on each dot to find the age of the person, where they died and the drugs found in their system. There were 1,901 people killed by opioids in 2016, according to the report.

In one Highlands case, a 60-year-old man was found dead with fentanyl, heroin, methadone and oxycodone in his system.

The report notes that opioid deaths continue to skyrocket — particularly those caused by fentanyl. New Jersey deaths caused by the powerful drug that killed Prince, a toxic substance believed to be as much as 50 times as powerful as heroin, doubled from 2015 to 2016.

The map also shows that opioid abuse is not confined to New Jersey's urban areas. Indeed, a Patch report from earlier in September showed that a number of suburban communities — such as Middlesex Boro — rival the state's largest communities in the number of heroin abuse cases.

Read more: New Data Shows 30 New Jersey Towns With Most Heroin Abuse

Debra L. Wentz, CEO and president of the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies, applauded Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday for proposing an "unprecedented and wide-reaching investment of roughly $200 million" to tackle the opioid epidemic.

"In his remarks, Gov. Christie noted that the nationwide toll of the opioid epidemic is akin to the Sept. 11, 2001, loss of life happening every three weeks," she said. "With the highest number of lives lost to addiction in New Jersey recorded in 2016, he governor’s continued efforts to battle this epidemic are desperately needed and greatly appreciated."

To get to the map, click on the picture below, which will bring you to the graphic composed by NJ Advance Media:

Read the NJ Advance Media report on opioid deaths in 2016.

Patch file photo