By Jenna Mellor

Last year, we lost 3,163 New Jerseyans to opioid overdoses. This translates to over eight funerals a day.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve helped bury someone you love. A family member, a coworker, a child’s classmate — all gone too soon. In 2018, Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than a car crash.

The silver lining is that preventable deaths are just that — preventable. If we want to act to save people’s lives, we can.

We can prevent overdose deaths with a common-sense public health approach called “harm reduction,” which is exhaustively researched and endorsed by everyone from the Center for Disease Control to the World Health Organization. I had the privilege of running a harm reduction program in Washington, D.C., where I learned that lives can be saved when the right policies and programs are in place.

Unlike traditional medical models, harm reduction does not offer people help only after they quit using drugs. Instead, these programs welcome people who inject drugs with open arms and kindness, no matter what they are injecting or how often.

To explain this with a metaphor, harm reduction means wearing a seat belt while driving. Seat belts take an inherently risky activity (getting behind the wheel of a car) and reduce the chances we’ll die while doing it.

Harm reduction programs connect people to the “seat belts” of injection drug use. These supplies can be lifesaving: new needles; safe containers to deposit used needles; Naloxone (a drug that reverses the effect of opioid overdose); and fentanyl testing strips.

To be sure, some fear that harm reduction programs condone drug use. But mounting research shows just the opposite. Programs like needle exchange and safe injection facilities actually increase connection to medical care and drug treatment, leading to better health outcomes and fewer deaths. Why? As humans, we are more likely to achieve goals that are aligned with our personal motivations. Traditional programs decide the goal: abstinence. Harm reduction programs meet people where they are at and support each individual in setting their own health goals.

This person-centered approach pulls people into care, instead of pushing them away. Once connected, harm reduction programs help people achieve goals, plan for the future, and stay connected to supportive networks, like friends and family — all of which have positive benefits for people’s health and happiness. As author Johann Hari says so eloquently: “the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection.”

Going back to the driving metaphor, if New Jersey had laws that made it difficult to obtain seat belts, drivers would be outraged. We should feel the same way about the laws currently in place that create barriers to lifesaving harm reduction programs.

Funding is a major barrier, as needle exchange programs have been banned from using public funds to buy syringes.

The lack of funding is so severe that, in 2016 — in the midst of an opioid crisis — New Jersey’s harm reduction programs resorted to a GoFundMe page, pleading for $95,000 in donations to support critical staff and services. Coming from D.C., I was shocked. My program received more public funding for harm reduction supplies in one year than New Jersey programs received in over a decade. This despite the fact that New Jersey has 13 times more people than D.C.

The onerous approval process is also a barrier. Even with the necessary funding, far too many programs have failed to materialize because of push back from local officials and community members. We must recognize that harm reduction programs are in everyone’s best interest, and we need these programs to exist in every corner of the state, cities and suburbs alike.

State Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal agrees, stating New Jersey “clearly needs more.” He recently compared us to Kentucky, a state with much fewer people but a resounding 46 harm reduction centers.

As the daughter of a bluegrass musician, I like Kentucky. But the Garden State should not be lagging behind the Bluegrass State in our adoption of common-sense, lifesaving public health measures. We can do better. We know that because others are.

What more do we need before we take action? How many lives lost will be too many?

Fortunately, we have the solutions. New Jersey’s Health Commission has named, and started implementing, several of them. Now it’s up to elected leaders — at every level of government — to act with the urgency that each and every human life deserves.

Jenna Mellor previously managed the mobile outreach team at HIPS in Washington, D.C. She is currently pursuing a master’s in public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.