Dear Editor:

At the recent Lincoln County News candidate forum, there was a spirited discussion about how we should be addressing Maine’s opioid and heroin addiction epidemic. This issue is hitting our region hard, as evidenced by the unusually high number of young adults appearing on the obituary pages of our local newspapers.

Many candidates emphasized heightened law enforcement aimed at drug traffickers as the primary strategy to address this scourge, yet it is clear from years of intense efforts to arrest those who either manufacture or sell drugs, that we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis.

Combatting our addiction epidemic also requires expanded opportunities for treatment and much more evidence-based work to prevent drug use in the first place. In the last legislative session, lawmakers came together to pass several laws intended to help with the addiction crisis, but the funding allocated to expand treatment was cursory at best.

Strategies to combat Maine’s opioid and heroin epidemic have been laid out in a comprehensive report issued in May by the Maine Opioid Collaborative. This statewide group is comprised of experts in law enforcement, health care and substance use, public health and people in recovery. Among their recommendations is the recognition that people seeking help with their addiction need more support for treatment so they are not faced with inordinately long waiting times and limited treatment options, particularly when they lack health insurance. 

The Collaborative acknowledged that Maine needs more options to help people who are ready to recover from the strangling grip of addiction. One way to accomplish this is for Maine to restore health insurance coverage through our Medicaid program for adults with very low incomes so our state can receive federal funding that will pay 90 percent of the treatment and health care costs associated with their therapy.

Taking this step would move us beyond the minimal investments made in the last legislative session so our neighbors and community members can get back on track to regain their health and once again be a productive member of our community. The tools and funding are available – we just need to be smart enough to seize them.

Wendy Wolf

Boothbay Harbor