Tomorrow, Thursday October 3rd at 11 a.m., the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey will welcome Dr. Christopher Jones, Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to be the featured speaker of a webinar commemorating Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day. For more than a decade, Jones has been on the front lines of the nation’s fight against the opioid epidemic in leadership positions with various agencies, including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the webinar, titled “Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day: Looking Back & Looking Ahead,” Jones will provide valuable insight into the history and evolution of the opioid epidemic, as well as community solutions available to help address the crisis. He will also answer questions from the audience and discuss ways in which individuals can prevent opioid use and misuses within their families and communities, which is a key goal of the outreach efforts made annually as part of Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day.

The webinar is part of the Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series held monthly by PDFNJ, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s Office of Alternative and Community Responses (OACR) and the Opioid Education Foundation of America (OEFA). The webinar has been approved for continuing education credit for various health care professionals, including physicians, physician assistants, dentists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, EMTs, social workers, athletic trainers, optometrists and certified health education specialists.

Visit https://knockoutday.drugfreenj.org/events to register to attend the webinar, which will highlight PDFNJ’s Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day statewide initiative, which has been held annually on October 6 since 2016 to educate residents and prescribers on the risks of prescription opioids and to raise awareness of the opioid crisis throughout the state. Participants from around the state will be sharing vital knowledge within their communities on October 6. For more information on Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day and to sign up for updates, visit knockoutday.drugfreenj.org