OVER THE EDGE

In Lewiston, high school students are attending heroin parties the way high school students used to attend beer bashes. Police in that city are investigating the overdose deaths of about a dozen young adults; in Portland, the number is 14. The overdose death in Standish Sunday of a young man was the second in that town in the last two weeks.

In Knox County, one of the first places where the invasion of heroin was noted in the mid-’90s, the sheriff has to choose between assigning a deputy to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency or conducting the routine patrols the public expects. In Washington County, two girls – both all-state caliber basketball players, one on track to be her high school’s valedictorian – succumb to prescription-drug abuse, turn to crime to support their addictions and find their promising lives dramatically and tragically changed.

Taken separately, any one of these situations should be cause for decisive action at the highest levels of state government – fiery, podium-pounding speeches followed by comprehensive and fully funded legislation. Taken together, they demonstrate how quickly a problem can grow into a catastrophe when the speeches are not given and the legislation not proposed, much less passed.

State government has worked on the treatment side of the drug equation the last few years. The drug courts now operating in six counties are producing excellent results by emphasizing recovery over punishment. Regional methadone clinics, though controversial, at least indicate an understanding that addicts are best treated close to home. State substance abuse programs have funneled federal grants to local medical centers for addiction programs.

The other side of the equation – stopping the flow of heroin, cocaine and illegally obtained prescription drugs – is a disaster. MDEA and local law enforcement officers do the difficult and dangerous work of combating drug traffickers and they do it well. There just aren’t enough of them. The bust in Bangor Monday is indicative: an intense and time-consuming multi-agency investigation led to the arrest of one 23-year-old and the confiscation of 20 small bags of heroin with a street value of $500 to $800. That’s only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

There are some good prevention efforts at the local level. Washington County, for example, has a sheriff’s deputy who divides his time between investigating drug dealers and talking about drugs to school kids. In such communities as Calais and Machias, citizen groups have formed to fight this scourge.

At the same time, MDEA, which is supposed to be Maine’s lead agency in drug interdiction is, as one Midcoast police chief said the other day, “treated as a stepchild” of state government. The bulk of its $3.1 million budget in 2001 came from a U.S. Department of Justice Byrne Grant. State General Fund support was less than $800,000; plus, the agency got to keep $80,000 of the nearly $350,000 in vehicles and cash it confiscated. The number of agents (local and county officers assigned to MDEA) is now 35, about half of Maine’s interdiction strength 10 years ago under the agency’s predecessor, BIDE. Meanwhile, the duties of the agents duties are exploding: heroin, crack, prescription drugs, Ecstasy are overwhelming cities and small towns alike; there are dangerous meth labs to break up, high-tech dealers to outwit; and, of course, education and community outreach programs to conduct.

There have been small steps in recent years: General Fund support to MDEA is set to increase to about $1 million this coming year. It is clear, however, that catching up to this galloping crisis will take more than small steps. The views of candidates for governor, the Legislature and Congress on this issue should be of the greatest importance to voters.

Back in 1995, at a state drug abuse conference, then-U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey told the audience that the recent, isolated appearances of crack and heroin had Maine “poised on a precipice” and that “what we do in the next one or two years will make all the difference.” That not enough was done is clear from the number of young Maine men and women falling over the edge.