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Darcy Cooke is an artist and community organizer. Cara Oleksyk of Bangor is a small business owner. Melissa Anne Day is an artist and activist. All are in long-term recovery.
As people in recovery, affected others, and concerned community members, we feel compelled to speak out about the harmful narratives coming from some leaders in both Brewer and Bangor right now around proposed healthcare focused solutions to the ongoing issue of substance use disorder (SUD). These narratives are not only stigmatizing to those of us dealing with SUD, they are standing in the way of productive, honest conversations that could lead to new, better ways of addressing SUD in our communities.
At the Bangor City Council workshop on April 24 there was a discussion about whether or not the council should take a position on LD 1159, an act which if passed, would create a two-year pilot project for a harm reduction health center (more commonly known as safe consumption sites). Rather than hearing a conversation around how harm reduction centers work and what that might look like in Maine, we instead heard a handful of councilors dismiss the idea out of hand with claims this program would turn Bangor into a “magnet for addicts.” The chair of the council, Rick Fournier, even said: “Why don’t we just send a message to El Chapo’s kids and just say there’s a safe injection site here in Bangor.”
These are the same arguments we heard when medically assisted treatment (MAT) programs came to Maine — programs that are successfully saving lives and getting folks into recovery. To suggest harm reduction centers would result in Bangor and Brewer being overrun by addicts and drug cartels is not only offensive and stigmatizing, it is factually incorrect. Harm reduction centers provide evidence-based services, such as overdose prevention, access to clean needles, and treatment referrals, that have been shown to reduce harm and save lives. There is evidence from the more than 100 harm reduction centers operating worldwide to support these claims. Studies and a New York City proposal offer some very good information.
Across the river, the City of Brewer has issued a resolve to oppose the decriminalization of possession of illegal drugs, even if they are decriminalized at the state level. We recognize that, like harm reduction centers, decriminalization is a controversial idea that requires thoughtful discussion. The problem is that this resolve stops that discussion before it even starts.
Worse, a justification used to pass this resolve is a flawed Brewer Police Department survey of law enforcement in Oregon, where drugs were decriminalized in 2020. Nowhere does the report supplement the survey and interview data with more objective measures like overdose data or 911 calls, or with voices from public health specialists or those in the recovery community. It ignores potential alternative drivers of crime rates like the COVID-19 pandemic. It also neglects to consider other cities where major drug policy reform was not a factor (and where more systematic research suggests that Oregon fares similarly or better than its peers). This is a completely one-sided and one-dimensional look at a very complicated issue.
In recovery circles, we use the phrase, “nothing changes if nothing changes,” to remind each other that if we want to break our addictions, we must be willing to live differently. This also applies to the ways we as a community address substance use disorder and the opioid crisis. More of the same is not working and it will not suddenly, magically begin to work.
We need to explore compassionate and evidence-based approaches to addressing addiction: prioritizing harm reduction, expanding access to treatment, and addressing systemic issues that contribute to addiction in the first place, such as our dire lack of quality, affordable mental and physical health care. We are calling on elected officials in Bangor and Brewer to look at all of the evidence with open minds, put an end to harmful rhetoric around substance use disorder, and join us in a good faith conversation about healthcare based solutions- because nothing changes if nothing changes.
