SANFORD — As a police professional, it is sometimes difficult for me to examine a topic from other than a law enforcement perspective. I believe this is normal for any professional; we all use our frames of reference to help us interpret information and solve problems.
The current and apparently inescapable public health crisis that has been created by the use of highly addictive opioid drugs is a problem that has been, and will continue to be, examined by many people, each of whom analyzes the problem through a unique lens.
I am very fortunate to have a graduate degree in psychology, as well as a background in health care. My education and experience allow me to combine my law enforcement knowledge with an understanding of the neurobiology of addiction.
I understand that addiction is a powerful, chronic and deadly disease. A person may choose to start abusing opioids, but once addicted, that person loses the ability to choose. A person who suffers from addiction does not make rational decisions when it comes to their disease.
This is exactly why the threat of arrest and incarceration has little or no effect on an addict. They are not worried about going to jail; they are worried about where they are going to get their next supply of opioids so that they will not “get sick.” The only effective way to deal with this problem is to educate people, prevent as many people as possible from starting to abuse opioids and offer effective, evidence-based treatment to anyone who asks for help.
Our state representatives and senators have an opportunity to enact legislation that could be an important first step in offering evidence-based treatment at the community level.
L.D. 1488, which creates the Substance Abuse Assistance Program, will provide funding for “local governments to carry out projects designed to reduce substance abuse, substance abuse-related crimes, and recidivism.” This is a unique opportunity for local jurisdictions to identify their most significant substance abuse issue and then design a program to target that specific problem. What a wonderful concept!
In Sanford, we have decided that opioid addition, specifically heroin use, is our most significant substance abuse problem. Working with our local crisis response provider, the police department recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Maine Behavioral Healthcare that defines a police-community partnership to treat identified heroin users in an evidence-based, medication-assisted outpatient program in the local community.
Maine Behavioral Healthcare will train identified Sanford police officers in what is called a “brief intervention.” The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines a brief intervention as an “evidence-based practice design to motivate individuals at risk of substance abuse and related health problems to change their behavior by helping them understand how their substance use puts them at risk and to reduce or give up their substance use.”
My officers know the people who use heroin. They speak to them on a daily basis. Should L.D. 1488 become law, my officers will have the ability to refer people into a free, medication-assisted program that includes intense outpatient therapy, drug testing and continued psychosocial therapy for the duration of treatment.
Referring police officers will continue their community outreach by maintaining contact with referred clients to provide support and monitor progress. Research demonstrates that this type of treatment protocol has a success rate approaching 70 to 80 percent.
In Sanford, our goal is to enroll 30 people suffering from heroin addiction into the program in the first year. That means 30 fewer heroin users; 30 fewer people who need to commit crimes to support their addiction; 30 people who will be able to obtain and keep a job and pay taxes; 30 families that will not be torn apart by heroin use because the parent or parents are addicts; 30 children who will not break the hearts of their parents when they overdose and die.
In year two perhaps we would be able to obtain funding to double that number to 60 clients; in year three, 90 clients; in year four, 120 clients, and on, and on … Remember that every dollar spent on treatment saves approximately $7 that would have been spent on enforcement!
Please join me in encouraging our state senators and representatives to vote for and pass L.D. 1488. Please give your local communities the necessary funding to solve this problem at the local level. Law enforcement has failed to win the 40-year-old “War on Drugs.” Working within our communities, let’s wage a “War on Addiction” – a war that we might just be able to win.
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