About 150 people held battery-operated candles aloft and swayed to the hymn "Amazing Grace" as Republican Gov. Chris Christie called for an end to the "shame" associated with drug addiction at a vigil on Wednesday.
The event outside the New Jersey statehouse came as Christie continued to place drug treatment and addiction assistance at the top of his agenda, but also after a rough legislative week that saw the prospects for a book deal diminish after the Democrat-led Legislature canceled votes on a law change that would have permitted him write a book while still in office.
Christie told the crowd, which included many of his cabinet officials, that as long as he's governor "we will not give up" on people suffering from addiction. On the podium with the governor was former Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey, several other state officials, families who've lost loved ones as well as people who have regained their sobriety.
"I will not stand for the idea that any soul irredeemable," Christie said. "There's no shame in this."
The choir of New Hope Baptist church performed, and McGreevey, who resigned from office in 2004 and now serves as director of the nonprofit New Jersey Reentry Corporation that helps ex-offenders, delivered the closing prayer.
The two-term governor has made fighting drug addiction a priority.
Christie is running radio ads encouraging people to call the state's addiction support hotline, 211. The ads run through Dec. 31. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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He also is credited with getting people to pay attention to drug addiction, expanding drug court programs and signing a measure that expands the use of the overdose-prevention drug naloxone, known commercially as Narcan.
Earlier this year he announced plans to convert a recently closed prison into a drug treatment center for inmates.
The state also is spending $2.3 million this year on a program that acts as a one-stop shop for people looking for treatment, and Christie has proposed a $400,000 increase for the program in the current budget.
Christie appeared earlier this year with McGreevey at a statehouse event where he announced the expansion of a program that pairs ex-offenders with coaches who help them recover and an extension to a rebate that goes toward law enforcement agencies using Narcan.
Earlier this week, lawmakers canceled a vote on legislation that would have allowed Christie to ink a book deal while in office, changing an ethics law that calls for the governor to draw only his salary of $175,000, while also giving legislative staffers a boost in pay. Lawmakers say that legislation won't be revisited.
