June 28, 2012 – Last Friday the state Senate passed legislation sponsored by the 9th District’s Sen. Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove that would establish a Hooked on Fishing – Not on Drugs program within the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife to encourage children to avoid drug use.
The initiative has passed both houses of the Legislature and will be sent to the desk of Gov. Chris Christie.
The Connors-Rumpf-Gove measure would establish HOFNOD – which was developed by the Future Fisherman Foundation and is nationally recognized – on a statewide basis by enabling Fish and Wildlife to implement and model the program after the pilot program implemented in Ocean County in 2000. To the maximum extent possible, the division would implement and operate the program in every county in the state.
Funding for the program, as outlined in the initiative, would be through the Drug Enforcement and Demand Reduction Fund, a statutory account established to receive fines and penalties from convicted drug offenders that is then used to support state-authorized drug and alcohol abuse abatement programs.
“Final passage of the Hooked on Fishing – Not on Drugs legislation brings our state one step closer to implementing an effective program to curtail drug use among children,” the legislators noted in a joint statement. “The primary goal sought under this legislation is, in our opinion, consistent with the administration’s ongoing efforts to reduce the number of persons in the state incarcerated for drug use, which represents a tremendous expense to taxpayers, at a time in which there are limited resources. From a practical standpoint, our legislation would appropriately utilize monies collected as fines from convicted drug offenders – not taxpayer dollars – to strongly discourage illegal drug use by the next generation.