A couple weeks ago, MPBN aired this sad story: for the third year in a row the number of drug related deaths in Maine increased. In 2014, 208 Mainers died, up from 176 in 2013. These statistics are a sad and tragic reminder of the failures of our current drug policy. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. Many of these families could have been spared the intense pain of the loss of a loved one.
And yet, for the third year in a row we continue to see the same failed policy being pushed in Augusta. Meanwhile the number of lives lost continues to rise.
This year, Governor LePage called for a renewal of the failed War on Drugs, providing funding in his new budget to hire more DEA agents and prosecutors to punish people for their addiction. At the same time, he decided to play doctor to thousands of Mainers struggling with addiction, proposing ending MaineCare coverage for methadone and switching everyone to Suboxone over the numerous objections of Maine doctors (people with actual licenses to practice medicine) and established best practice.
Even worse, these were not the only terrible drug policy proposals to come out of the Governor's office this year. Last week was the public hearing for LD 1407, a bill introduced by the governor to allow drug testing of all welfare recipients and to disqualify anyone with a felony drug conviction from recieving TANF benefits. Not only is this terrible policy, it's also unconstitutional. Poverty does not give the government probable cause for a warrantless search. Denial of vital assistance such as food stamps is not the best way of helping a person struggling with addiction to overcome it. Far from discouraging drug use, all the governor's bill actually accomplishes is to stigmatize and perpetuate false stereotypes about people receiving state benefits, all the while wasting taxpayer money violating Mainers' constitutional rights - money that should be being spent on treatment.
Fortunately, in addition to these terrible proposals, there are also some good drug policy reform bills being considered this legislative session. One is LD 113, An Act to Reduce the Penalties for Certain Drug Offenses, sponsored by Senator Katz of Augusta. If passed, LD 113 would downgrade current criminal penalties for drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. Today, if a person is caught possessing any amount of certain drugs (i.e half a pill) they are charged with a Class C crime, a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Possession of certain amounts are a Class B crime, punishable by up to ten years in prison. Beyond carrying a lengthy prison term, a felony conviction has lifelong implications for a person's ability to obtain employment, find housing and access other crucial services - including TANF assistance if LD 1407 becomes law.
Unfortunately, this bill faces opposition from the Governor's office, the Maine Attorney General and Maine Prosecutors Association, all of which pulled out the same old Drug War rhetoric to justify their opposition - claiming that they had to felonize people struggling with addiction in order to "get tough on the big time traffickers." In other words, in their zeal to get these "big time traffickers," Maine prosecutors, DEA agents and the Attorney General are alright permanently labeling Mainers struggling with addiction, felons. Far from protecting addicted Mainers, current laws allow prosecutors to ruin countless lives (4 out of 5 of all drug arrests in Maine are for possession). Yet Maine Prosecutors, the Attorney General and the Governor are perfectly okay with that.
They are perfectly okay with the fact that every time they label a person possessing drugs a felon, they permanently relegate them to the status of a second-class citizen - for simple drug possession. They are perfectly okay with the fact that far from "protect our children" they are in fact felonizing them, as almost 20 percent of people currently under Maine Department of Correction's supervision for a felony drug conviction are 25 years of age or younger - young people that will face permanent barriers to accessing higher education and employment. They are perfectly okay with eviscerating the due process rights enshrined in our Constitution and using extreme sentencing (scuh as ten years in prison for simple drug possession) to coerce plea deals, essentially nullifying a defendants' right to a trial (for more on this read this great article from conservative columnist George Will published last year).
Despite all of this, they are not even putting a dent in the illegal drug trade. Econ 101: reducing supply has no effect on demand and while Mainers struggling with addiction are unable to get the help they need, there will be demand for drugs.
We are not okay with this, and we hope you aren't either. As we have written before, addiction is a public health issue. People struggling with addiction need treatment and access to support services, not incarceration and the life burden of a felony conviction. LD 113 is the first step towards a more sensible drug policy.
We are currently in Augusta fighting for the passage of this vital bill, however we need your help. If you are interested in getting involved email me at gdunne@aclumaine.org.
