South Jersey’s Opioid Problem, Atlantic County Tax Issues – Monday’s Roundup

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South Jersey’s Opioid Problem
The number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers written in some South Jersey counties increased between 2015 and 2010, bucking the national trend of a decline in opioid prescription rates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Cumberland and Cape May counties saw an increase in opioid prescription rates over that period, while the prescription rate in Atlantic, Camden, Salem, Gloucester and Burlington counties remained stable, but much higher than the prescription rate in North Jersey, the CDC found. (Separate but related: NJ Spotlight has this piece looking at whether emergency rooms are the weak link in the state’s prescription monitoring program.)

The CDC report, part of a nation-wide review of opioid prescription rates published last week, showed that South Jersey has some of the highest opioid prescription rates in the nation. Read more via Route 40.

Atlantic County Tax Issues
Disagreement over how to create a county-wide tax assessment system that would lower the overall number of appeals in Atlantic County means the issue will likely stretch into next year, reports John DeRosier for the Press of Atlantic City.  “County and state officials both agree a countywide system is needed to reduce the overall number of appeals. But no one can agree on how it should be done,” DeRosier writes.

Hammonton blueberries, via @moonlilyimages on Instagram.

In the rest of the day’s news, cancer diagnoses are declining in South Jersey, many South Jersey kids have a lower quality of life than their peers in the north of the state, a former Atlantic City Teacher of the Year and Christie’s pick for Board of Education was quietly dropped after it emerged she was banned from working in schools, Guadagno wants to sell Christie’s Island Beach State Park beach house, Cumberland County College has a new beverage tourism program, and it’s going to get hotter and more humid this week.

All that and more below:

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