AUGUSTA – Governor LePage’s call for a renewed “war on drugs” in tonight’s State of the State is a misguided approach to Maine’s rise in drug abuse, according to the ACLU of Maine.
Across the nation, elected officials – Republican and Democrat alike – are calling for a new, smart approach to drug abuse that prioritizes results-based treatment and diversion programs over increased law enforcement involvement. But in tonight’s speech, Gov. LePage proposed spending millions to add new Drug Enforcement Agency positions, drug prosecutors and drug court judges in Maine.
The following can be attributed to Rachel Healy, communications director at the ACLU of Maine:
“The so-called ‘War on Drugs’ is a failed experiment that has torn families apart, made the U.S. the world’s number one incarcerator, cost our nation nearly one trillion dollars, and done little if anything to reduce the demand for drugs over the last 40 years. As the rest of the nation wakes up to the reality that it’s time for a new approach, Governor LePage is calling for Maine to sink more money into these failed tactics. We simply can’t afford to go backwards on this. It’s time for Maine to take a health-based approach and invest in treatment and diversion programs that are far more effective that simply locking more people up.”
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