Can we talk? There’s a long-overdue conversation we need to have, about drugs.

As citizens of the beautiful state of Maine, as summer residents and visitors, we share a huge problem. Right here – where our families have lived for generations, where we have chosen to settle and raise our children, where we come to escape the stress of urban life – we have a devastating substance abuse problem. And it’s growing, getting worse each season, with new, more dangerous and more addictive drugs available all the time.

Today, the Bangor Daily News launches a new feature with the aim of getting this public health crisis out in the open, where we may all be able to make better sense of it. In this space each Thursday, we’ll bring you the thoughts and comments of people who every day confront the ravages of substance abuse. They are healers, law enforcers, counselors, teachers and parents. Their goal, and ours, is to get you talking – asking the critical questions, seeking and accepting support, sharing your experience and offering up your compassion to others.

Who could have guessed that the inner-city scourge of heroin would become a serious concern in rural Maine? Who knew that the powerful painkiller OxyContin would prove so seductive that thousands of youngsters Down East would get hooked on it? Or that alcohol – the most commonly abused drug in the state – would continue to devastate Maine families, generation after generation? And now, methamphetamine, a deadly, addictive newcomer, threatens to make all our other drug woes pale by comparison.

Regardless of income, education or background, the crisis of substance abuse reaches right into our homes – ruining our families, crushing our dreams and breaking our hearts. Maine children, teens and young adults are dying. Substance abuse hospitalizes thousands of our young people and sends thousands more to “corrections” facilities and controversial treatment programs. It’s created a demand for medical specialists who care for the drug-addicted infants of drug-addicted mothers. It separates babies, young children and vulnerable teens from their parents, to be raised by grieving grandparents or professional foster families.

Nearly every household has been touched in some way by this epidemic. If you think it hasn’t touched you yet, just ask around. Ask your neighbors. Ask the school principal or your town manager. Ask your friends. And, if you’re really brave, ask your teenagers.

The trouble is, we don’t ask. And if someone asks us – How’re the kids? – we often don’t tell. This is tough, scary stuff to talk about. When a family member is a drug user, it can seem too personal and too shameful to be part of any polite conversation. Our lie-awake fears for the safety and survival of our children are accompanied by the growing certainty that, as their parents, we must have done something unspeakably wrong. The guilt and sadness leaves us mute and paralyzed, just when we most need to reach out, to ask for help and to support others living with the same sense of despair. In the midst of an epidemic, we feel alone.

Communication is a powerful tool to combat this isolation, ignorance and stigma, to forge purpose and nurture hope. Our intent here at the BDN is that this new weekly column will foster a dialog between tormented parents, troubled kids, worried municipal leaders and others in the community whose lives are affected by substance abuse. We hope our readers will find information and comfort here, the courage to cope with their fears and the resources to make positive changes in their lives.

On this page next Thursday, as well as on our Web site, www.bangornews.com, we’ll break the ice with the comments of plainspoken Bangor psychologist Dr. John Keefe, who specializes in substance abuse treatment. Please join other readers in reading and discussing Dr. Keefe’s column and the comments of other contributors in the weeks ahead. We hope you will join and sustain the conversation by sending us your responses, questions and perspectives.

Let’s start talking, and see where the conversation takes us.

Meg Haskell is the Bangor Daily News health writer. Send comments by calling 990-8291 or e-mailing findingafix@bangordailynews.net.