Last fall, the Bangor Daily News initiated this weekly “conversation” about the substance abuse problem in Maine, and all of us have benefited from that effort. Multiple perspectives have been shared, including those from former addicts now in recovery, family members of addicted individuals, treatment providers, interested residents and others. The variety of contributors has provided readers with a collective overview from the community at large.

Substance abuse has exploded into a rampant epidemic throughout our state. Accidental overdose deaths increased fivefold between 1997 and 2002. Most of these deaths were due to prescription opiates in combination with alcohol and-or anti-depressants, and in 2002 the number of these deaths rivaled those caused by motor vehicle accidents. Last year, it was reported that drug-related overdose deaths continued unabated, that cocaine use continued to increase, and that methamphetamine use had become a problem in Maine.

On Jan. 12, state officials reported that accidental, drug-related overdose deaths outnumbered motor vehicle fatalities in 2005 and that the majority of these deaths were due to the abuse of opiate drugs prescribed for pain control.

In that same day’s edition of “Finding a Fix,” Pat Kimball, executive director of the Wellspring drug and alcohol treatment programs in Bangor, pointed out that agencies in Maine have the capacity to treat only 15 percent of the more than 100,000 Mainers needing treatment for substance abuse. She noted that more than 59,600 employed adults in Maine have serious substance abuse problems and that their primary drug of choice is alcohol.

Unfortunately, as Kimball noted, a recent bill to increase funding for prevention and treatment of substance abuse by increasing the tax on alcohol was rejected from consideration during the current legislative session because the session is reserved for so-called “emergency legislation.” Even worse, next year’s federal funding for Maine’s Drug Enforcement Agency, Office of Substance Abuse and the national Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program have already been slashed drastically.

What, then, should we, can we, must we do to effectively reverse the tidal wave of drug trafficking and substance abuse engulfing Maine communities? Lots – that’s what we must do! It will take all of our efforts to take our community back.

When local boat builder and fisherman Weldon Leonard stood up at a Southwest Harbor selectman’s meeting in May 2003 and insisted that something be done about the substance abuse problem in his community, no one could have foreseen the results: that a very effective drug enforcement partnership between MDEA and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department would be operational at the start of 2004, tripling indictments for drug-related crimes over the next two years; that substance abuse treatment would become available in the Hancock County jail in March 2004; and that a successful deferred sentencing project modeled after Maine’s Adult Drug Treatment Court would become operational in Hancock County in April 2005, without the benefit of state funding or judicial resources.

How did all this happen? It happened, in part, because individuals such as Hancock County Sheriff Bill Clark and former state Sen. Jill Goldthwait cautioned “If we don’t do this ourselves, no one else will” and “Continuing to wait for someone else to solve these problems for us is unacceptable.”

On Dec. 29, column editor Meg Haskell wrote about the tragic death of a young man from Tremont who died of a drug overdose and the frank obituary written by his family. The young man’s father said his son had always been very open about his addiction, but “At first I didn’t want to talk about it. But then I discovered that virtually everybody has a friend or a family member in trouble with drugs or alcohol.”

In closing her column, Haskell wrote, “Addiction is not a disease that affects only the poor, the indigent, the uneducated, the disadvantaged. It doesn’t affect only other people and other families. It belongs to all of us. It is our disease, claiming the lives of our children, and it’s time we were angry enough to talk about it.”

I suggest changing that ending just a little. It is time we were angry enough at this disease to do something about it ourselves – whatever we can – including talking and writing about it.

We can write to our state legislators demanding increased funding of prevention and treatment efforts. We can travel to Augusta in busloads to influence the Health and Human Services and the Appropriations committees. We can write our congressional senators and representatives decrying the administration’s proposed budget cuts for MDEA, OSA and the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Surely we can look within our own communities and find ways to assist our neighbors and community members who are struggling with or have been scarred by the effects of drug addiction. Surely we can find tangible ways to express our gratitude and good fortune if our own families have not been affected directly by this terrible disease. All these choices are ours, and ours alone, to make.

On July 24, 2003, The Ellsworth American published an open letter to the Hancock County Commissioners from the parents of a young man who had died of an accidental opiate overdose in Hancock several weeks earlier. The following excerpt is a call to action:

“We have seen that there are dangers that we as a society already protect our children and ourselves against. They include inexperienced drivers, impure water and air and unsafe electrical wiring, to name only a few. We urge you, in your capacity as Hancock County Commissioners, to protect our children and the future of Hancock County from the pervasive, merciless problem of drug abuse by curtailing the easy availability of illicit drugs through increased law enforcement, as well as greater support for more intensive drug rehabilitation programs.”

Our choices are really quite simple and boil down to this: either we assign top priority to the problem of substance abuse in our communities and our state – and pay for it accordingly – or we acknowledge that we are unwilling to do so.

Richard Dimond is a retired physician from Southwest Harbor, a board member of the Acadia Family Center and the MDI Alcohol and Drug Abuse Group Inc. and the Steering Committee Chair of the Hancock County Deferred Sentencing Project. Please join our weekly conversation about Maine’s substance abuse problem. We welcome comments or questions from all perspectives. Letters may be mailed to Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04401. Send e-mail contributions to findingafix@bangordailynews.net. Column editor Meg Haskell may be reached at (207) 990-8291 or mhaskell@bangordailynews.net.

From the Heart

In last week’s “Finding a Fix” column, the Wellspring substance abuse program’s executive director, Pat Kimball, of in Bangor wrote about the need to increase public funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs in order to decrease the number of Mainers waiting to get help.

Pat Kimball’s article in last Thursday’s paper was wonderful. I wish it had been placed right beside the “Drugs kill more than car wrecks” article on the front page.

It is unfortunate that the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency is losing federal funding. However, the fact that Gov. John Baldacci wants to approve $640,000 from state monies in order to step up MDEA’s efforts to arrest and prosecute really misses the crux of the problem. I would like to see spending directed toward prevention as well as programs such as Wellspring that assist the process of change necessary for addicts to redirect their lives.

I personally have two addicted children. One is fully on the course of a productive life, after a horrendous battle. The other is attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings very regularly, is four months clean and sober and is very much on the right path. I have attended these meetings with my child and want to say that from all I hear from the other NA members, Wellspring has literally saved their lives. It is amazing how many NA members have made good use of the program and credit it totally to the change in their thinking. Just last night, there was a person who had been waiting “forever” to get a bed and was finally admitted to the program. She was one day sober and bubbling over with enthusiasm for her prospects. She received much encouragement and support from the group. Pat Kimball is a godsend to this area and so is the Wellspring program.

I try to help in the small way I can, by supporting the NA group as a whole and letting them know there are people who love them. If they have lost the respect and support of these loved ones, it is probably only temporary and can be rebuilt.

Thanks for your much-needed attention to the drug-alcohol problem.

– Katheryn Bernier, Bangor

I was impressed with last week’s article. Everyone, especially the Legislature, needs to know and think about how much alcohol abuse costs the state of Maine and its taxpayers each year.

As a legislator for 12 years, I was opposed to privatizing liquor to “save” the state money. As an educator and Maine citizen for many years, the damage caused by alcohol abuse was most apparent to me. I believe the state has lost what little control and oversight it had on the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Privatizing liquor was not a Republican, Democrat or Independent issue for governors, and legislators of all parties favored it from 1980 to this very day. Alcohol has always been a problem even during the days of Prohibition. Today the abuse is out of control. I hope you young folks (I’m 88 – too old to tackle problems) can find ways to alleviate this growing problem.

– Nat Crowley Sr., Stockton Springs