Personal stories shared by recovering addicts, their families and city officials during a Portland forum Wednesday night gave powerful testimony to the devastating impact the opiate epidemic is having on Maine.

A law school student, a father whose daughter is in prison because of drug use, a funeral director and two junior high school students were among several people who recounted their stories.

“My life used to involve jails, hospitals, overdoses, homelessness and an utter loss of hope. I was physically, spiritually and emotionally sick,” said Christopher Poulos of Portland, one of five panelists at the forum.

Poulos, who plans to graduate from the University of Maine School of Law in May, told the audience that he is a recovering addict and hasn’t used drugs in seven years. He said friends advised him against speaking at the forum because of the ramifications it could have on his life and his career, but felt he needed to remind addicts that addiction is treatable.

Christopher Poulos, a soon-to-be-lawyer, speaks at Wednesday night’s forum about his struggle with addiction. “I was physically, spiritually and emotionally sick,” he told the audience. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

“I can’t stay quiet anymore,” Poulos said. “I’ve buried too many friends to remain silent.”

The event, which was sponsored by the city of Portland and the Maine Opiate Collaborative, drew about 80 people to the Ocean Gateway terminal. The collaborative planned to use the ideas generated at the forum to help develop recommendations for federal, state and local actions to address the opiate epidemic.

The panel of addiction and treatment experts addressed the crowd before the audience was given a chance to speak.

Among them was Danny R. Hatt, a funeral director with the Conroy-Tully Crawford funeral home. He told the forum he recently buried a 24-year-old man who died from a drug overdose.

“We are on the front lines of this (epidemic),” Hatt said. “It wears me down more and more, each time I end up burying one of these kids.”

Dan Hatt of Conroy-Tully Crawford Funeral Homes prepares before speaking at the Portland Community Opiate Forum. Hatt said he is sometimes burying two to three overdose victims a week. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

Hatt, who has been a funeral director for 20 years, reminded the public that the people who are dying often come from good families and aren’t criminals.

“I’m burying the children of doctors, lawyers and professionals,” he said. “They’ve had good upbringings, but somehow got caught up in this web of addiction. We’ve got to do something about it.”

David Cleveland of Durham said his three children – all young adults – have struggled with addiction for six years. His 24-year-old daughter is in jail on drug-related charges, but his effort to find a residential treatment bed for her has been difficult.

Her situation and that of his other children, ages 26 and 30, have torn apart his family.

Dave Cleveland of Durham takes a moment for himself after speaking at the Portland Community Opiate Forum on Wednesday night. Cleveland said his three children, ages 24, 26 and 30, all have struggled with substance abuse and his 24-year-old daughter is now incarcerated because of a drug-related offense. He said it has torn apart his family and cost him his marriage. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

“Over the last six years, these addictions have drained my family,” said Cleveland, who at one point became too emotional to continue speaking. “I realize now that my wife and I have been living in trauma all those years. This a problem that knows no boundaries and I just don’t know where to turn.”

Cleveland was comforted by two Lyman Moore Middle School students, 12-year-old Aalliyah Ferreira and 13-year-old Taevonna Caterina, who put her hand on Cleveland’s shoulder after he spoke.

The girls said the city’s drug epidemic is frightening because they have seen friends and other students getting drawn into the drug culture.

“It is scary to think this (an overdose) could happen to anyone,” Ferreira said.

Aalliyah Ferreira, 12, right, wipes a tear from her eye while addressing a roomful of people at Ocean Gateway on Wednesday evening during the Portland Community Opiate Forum. Her friend and fellow Lyman Moore Middle School student Taevonna Caterina, 13, looks on at left. Ferreira spoke about how Portland’s heroin epidemic makes her sad and affects children around her who are finding needles and people who have overdosed. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

Portland’s wake-up call to the severity of the epidemic came in July 2015, when the police department responded to 14 drug overdoses in a 24-hour period. Two of those individuals died.

Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said substance abuse is now so rampant that there is almost always a connection to crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder. Sauschuck, one of the panelists, said there were 46 drug-related fatalities in Portland last year. Two people died Saturday in Portland after overdosing on opiates.

“Addiction is a disease, not a crime, and those suffering from it need our support,” he said. “With a significant increase in drug overdoses and deaths in our community, we are committed to a war on addiction rather than a war on addicts.”

Sauschuck admitted that the traditional law enforcement methods of punishing drug users through incarceration is not working.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” Sauschuck said, referring to the epidemic as a public health emergency.

Daniel Meyerowitz of Portland said he has been in long-term recovery, and thanked the city for hosting the forum.

“Humanizing addiction is paramount to solving this,” said the 21-year-old Meyerowitz, a recovering opiate addict.

Meyerowitz, who belongs to Radical Recovery Leadership, invited the audience to participate in a candlelight vigil on the evening of May 8, a Sunday. He said the group will hold a silent walk from Monument Square to Deering Oaks to remember and honor the loved ones who have died from substance abuse.

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