Story highlights Christie officially spoke with the commission members for the first time Monday

The commission discussed their interim report on the opioid epidemic

(CNN) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called for President Donald Trump to elevate the opioid epidemic to a national public health emergency in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Monday.

"We hope that the President declares a public health emergency in this country," Christie said, speaking on behalf of the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

The Republican governor, who chairs the President's commission , officially spoke with the five-member panel for the first time Monday afternoon to discuss its interim findings . Although the commission was initially asked to release its long-awaited interim report on June 27, a date set when Trump signed his executive order on opioids in March, the commission missed that deadline twice

The former US attorney compared the loss of life to opioids to the terror attacks of September 11.

"We have a 9/11-scale loss every three weeks," Christie said, adding that three-fourths of those losses are from opioid overdoses. He stressed that four out of five new heroin addicts in the US started on prescription opioids.

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