- Joined
- Jan 23, 2013
- Messages
- 30,673
LePage ramping up Maine’s war on drugs
March 11, 2014
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage is releasing details of a plan he’s offering to the Legislature that would increase efforts to arrest and prosecute those using and dealing in illegal drugs.
LePage set combating drug crimes as a high priority during his State of the State address in February.
His proposed bill provides the state with new resources, according to a news release issued by his office Monday.
“Combined with treatment and recovery, funding for these critical positions is also needed to stem the increased threat to public safety and to the health of Mainers,” the release said.
Included in the measure is funding for four new District Court judges, 14 investigative agents within the Department of Public Safety and four new attorneys in the Office of the Attorney General.
The 22 new positions will cost the state an estimated $347,000 in fiscal 2015.
“We must confront this troubling epidemic,” LePage said in a prepared statement. “While some are spending all their time trying to expand welfare, we are losing the war on drugs.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine on Tuesday criticized LePage’s approach, challenging him to prioritize and focus on diversion and treatment programs over more arrests.
“In Maine, drug arrests have gone up nearly 240 percent since the mid-1980s. Yet despite the increase in enforcement, abuse has skyrocketed,” a release from the ACLU of Maine stated.
They also noted the state saw more deaths, 163, from drug abuse than it did car accidents in 2012, based on information from the state’s attorney general.
“Gov. LePage himself has said that the war on drugs is a failure, yet he is proposing a continuation of those same failed policies that have wreaked havoc on our communities and our state budgets,” Grainne Dunne, justice organizer at the ACLU of Maine, said in a prepared statement. “The war on drugs is one of the most costly, most wasteful, and least effective government programs ever devised. Lawmakers across the country are taking a smarter approach to the rise in drug abuse, and Maine should do the same.”
Adrienne Bennett, a spokeswoman for the governor, told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month that the new legislation is only part of the administration’s approach.
“While the administration has put forth a bill to address the public safety aspect of this problem there is much more that the administration is doing to combat it,” she wrote in a March 3 email. “This problem is going to be addressed through the programs [the Department of Health and Human Services] offers and through educating the public.”
In his State of the State address, LePage lamented the toll addiction takes on children, highlighting the 927 drug-affected babies born last year in Maine.
Bennett pointed to DHHS’ ongoing efforts to address the problem, including the formation in 2012 of a task force that now includes more than 70 health care professionals, substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery providers, DHHS staff and others. Maine also employs a state coordinator to oversee programs for drug-affected babies and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, who works with many stakeholders, including other states, Bennett said.
“Pregnancy is one of those times where women who have substance use disorders are often taking inventory and may be more open to treatment than they would at a different time in their life,” state coordinator Andrea Pasco told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month.
Pregnant women who abuse drugs are given priority placement for treatment services, and exempted from the state’s two-year cap on methadone treatment.
“I think some of the most important things that are happening are trying to get these women who are substance using and pregnant into treatment facilities, ensuring that they have good prenatal care,” Pasco said.
Once the babies are born, state programs help to ensure a healthy home environment, including the Maine Families Home Visiting Program, aimed at helping parents to bond with their babies and understand child brain development, she said.
LePage will be joined by public officials, legislators and supporters of this initiative at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the State House.
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/03/11/politics/lepage-ramping-up-maines-war-on-drugs/
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
March 11, 2014
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage is releasing details of a plan he’s offering to the Legislature that would increase efforts to arrest and prosecute those using and dealing in illegal drugs.
LePage set combating drug crimes as a high priority during his State of the State address in February.
His proposed bill provides the state with new resources, according to a news release issued by his office Monday.
“Combined with treatment and recovery, funding for these critical positions is also needed to stem the increased threat to public safety and to the health of Mainers,” the release said.
Included in the measure is funding for four new District Court judges, 14 investigative agents within the Department of Public Safety and four new attorneys in the Office of the Attorney General.
The 22 new positions will cost the state an estimated $347,000 in fiscal 2015.
“We must confront this troubling epidemic,” LePage said in a prepared statement. “While some are spending all their time trying to expand welfare, we are losing the war on drugs.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine on Tuesday criticized LePage’s approach, challenging him to prioritize and focus on diversion and treatment programs over more arrests.
“In Maine, drug arrests have gone up nearly 240 percent since the mid-1980s. Yet despite the increase in enforcement, abuse has skyrocketed,” a release from the ACLU of Maine stated.
They also noted the state saw more deaths, 163, from drug abuse than it did car accidents in 2012, based on information from the state’s attorney general.
“Gov. LePage himself has said that the war on drugs is a failure, yet he is proposing a continuation of those same failed policies that have wreaked havoc on our communities and our state budgets,” Grainne Dunne, justice organizer at the ACLU of Maine, said in a prepared statement. “The war on drugs is one of the most costly, most wasteful, and least effective government programs ever devised. Lawmakers across the country are taking a smarter approach to the rise in drug abuse, and Maine should do the same.”
Adrienne Bennett, a spokeswoman for the governor, told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month that the new legislation is only part of the administration’s approach.
“While the administration has put forth a bill to address the public safety aspect of this problem there is much more that the administration is doing to combat it,” she wrote in a March 3 email. “This problem is going to be addressed through the programs [the Department of Health and Human Services] offers and through educating the public.”
In his State of the State address, LePage lamented the toll addiction takes on children, highlighting the 927 drug-affected babies born last year in Maine.
Bennett pointed to DHHS’ ongoing efforts to address the problem, including the formation in 2012 of a task force that now includes more than 70 health care professionals, substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery providers, DHHS staff and others. Maine also employs a state coordinator to oversee programs for drug-affected babies and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, who works with many stakeholders, including other states, Bennett said.
“Pregnancy is one of those times where women who have substance use disorders are often taking inventory and may be more open to treatment than they would at a different time in their life,” state coordinator Andrea Pasco told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month.
Pregnant women who abuse drugs are given priority placement for treatment services, and exempted from the state’s two-year cap on methadone treatment.
“I think some of the most important things that are happening are trying to get these women who are substance using and pregnant into treatment facilities, ensuring that they have good prenatal care,” Pasco said.
Once the babies are born, state programs help to ensure a healthy home environment, including the Maine Families Home Visiting Program, aimed at helping parents to bond with their babies and understand child brain development, she said.
LePage will be joined by public officials, legislators and supporters of this initiative at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the State House.
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/03/11/politics/lepage-ramping-up-maines-war-on-drugs/
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
