He pitched the idea in Camden last month and made it one of the main parts of his State of the State speech last week. But it hasn't gotten him nearly the same kind of attention as his headlining proposal: a plan to reduce income taxes for all taxpayers by 10 percent over three years.
At the packed National Guard Armory, the tax cut - an idea that legislative Democrats oppose - took up most of his prepared remarks. But questions centered on the drug policy, and he answered at length.
Christie told of a young man he met a dozen years ago.
At the time, Christie was also serving on the board of a drug-treatment program in Morris County.
The man, he said, was addicted to heroin and had been caught stealing from his parents and breaking into another home to support his habit.
A judge, Christie said, told him he could spend a year in treatment or a longer period in prison.
While in the program, Christie said, he earned a high school diploma. After that, he went to Rutgers University, then law school. While he was there, Christie, then the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, got him an internship at his office.
"He is a practicing lawyer who makes a good amount of money, who is paying a good amount of taxes, who is contributing to society, who is doing volunteer work," Christie said.
If he had gone to jail, he likely would not have had those opportunities, the governor said.
A woman - also a recovering addict - who works in drug and alcohol treatment asked Christie, who is famously tight with state money, about more funds for treatment. Christie said he was working on that, too.
