Faced with a public health crisis that has left hundreds of young New Jerseyans dead, the governor’s task force on heroin and opiate abuse on Tuesday will call for a wide array of reforms to combat the state’s addiction epidemic, saying it’s "time to confront our demons."

A copy of the panel’s report, obtained by The Star-Ledger, proposes major changes to the state’s prescription pill monitoring laws, improvements to an insurance system that stacks the deck against drug addicts and expanded use of recovery communities for students with opioid addiction.

The result of two years of study, the findings are tantamount to a road map designed to combat addiction as the number of drug-related deaths in the state is skyrocketing, rising 53 percent from 2010 to 2012, with more than two-thirds of those fatalities involving prescription drug abuse, the report said.

The report details a two-pronged approach to tackling the state’s addiction problem. State officials want to stem the tide of prescription pills flowing from doctor’s offices and medicine cabinets that creates new addicts, while improving a failing rehab system.

"It’s time to confront our demons," the report says. "Our state needs an intervention."

Representatives for the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse declined to comment in advance of the report’s publication. The 16-member panel that drafted the report included medical professionals, representatives from the addiction treatment community, law enforcement leaders and former Gov. James McGreevey.

There is a new pathway to heroin addiction, the report says: Young pill addicts who can no longer afford or gain access to painkillers turn to the flood of potent and inexpensive heroin available on New Jersey’s street corners, according to the report. Of the 8,300 New Jersey residents admitted to drug treatment programs for opiate addiction in 2012, more than 40 percent were younger than 25, the report said.

"If you’re going to address the heroin problem, you’ve got to drill down on the pill problem," said Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato. "That’s how people get addicted to heroin."

Ocean County has been a flashpoint for the state’s struggles. A record-breaking 112 people died of drug overdoses there in 2013, more than double the year before. The overwhelming majority of those deaths were linked to opiates.

To stop the cycle, the report called for major changes to the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program. Launched in 2012, the program was meant to track every prescription filled for controlled dangerous substances or human growth hormone in the state, but participation was voluntary.

Only 18 percent of the state’s licensed prescribers and pharmacies had agreed to participate as of February 2014, so the report called for legislation mandating participation. State officials hope wider compliance will help doctors identify patients with drug problems, while calling attention to physicians who overprescribe and addicts who engage in "doctor shopping," the practice of obtaining multiple prescriptions from different physicians.

"There is still a significant diversion of prescription drugs," said Frank Greenagel, chairman of the task force and a professor at Rutgers University. "The reason I think heroin use has exploded is because the prescription drugs increase the market. Someone would never try heroin, but they’d use prescription pills because it’s prescribed to you by a doctor."

The task force also took aim at insurers, after hearing testimonials from families whose sons and daughters died while on waiting lists for treatment. Many patients said they were advised to lie about their condition, such as claiming they were suicidal or alcohol-dependent, in order to gain treatment for heroin addiction, the report said.

Several of the victims described in the report suffered relapses and died after they were booted from treatment facilities unwilling to provide long-term care.

"When someone is addicted to heroin and you put them in a 30-day program, no disrespect to that program, but it’s pretty much useless," Coronato said.

The report also urged the state to consider creating "recovery high schools," addiction treatment communities that allow recovering addicts to attend class together in a supportive environment, rather than return them to the schools where they likely first became addicted to painkillers.

The program has met with success in other states, While studies show 93 percent of high school students are offered drugs in their first day back at school from a treatment facility, addicts who attend recovery high school programs have an 80 percent abstinence rate.

While the program could meet some resistance due to costs, state legislators said New Jersey must weigh the short-term cost of initiating such programs against the long-term costs of not treating the addiction crisis.

"While it might cost the state in terms of investment dollars now, it’s going to save much more money in the future, when we look at what it costs to provide treatment, what it costs as far as incarceration, what it costs in terms of law enforcement and lives," said Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex).

Rebecca Bonner — director of Bridge Way, a recovery high school in Philadelphia — said New Jersey leaders must accept that the face of the opiate addict has changed. Many students could wander down the path to heroin addiction after a sports injury or a simple trip to their parent’s medicine cabinet.

"They had been gone for 30, 60 days of treatment, and the first person who found them when they got back was their dealer," she said of addicts returning to school. "It cuts across socioeconomic barriers. It’s a very pernicious disease."

Star-Ledger photographer Tony Kurdzuk contributed to the report.

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