As a physician and a counselor, I greatly appreciated Greg Kesich’s April 11 column, “When a Disease becomes a Crime,” referring to substance use disorder. The medical and mental health communities have recognized addictions as illnesses for many years, but public opinion has been slow to accept this view. Treatment and prevention have been hampered by the mistaken impression that these illnesses were not illness at all, but somehow caused by the patients themselves, and would be solved by punishment of “offenders.” Therefore our jails have filled up and treatment centers have shut down.

Maine has particularly harsh drug possession laws, so large numbers of people with the illness of addiction —young people, breadwinners, parents — have been incarcerated for that illness. The bill before the legislature, LD 967, An Act to Make Possession of Scheduled Drugs for Personal Use a Civil Penalty, can change that. This bill deserves wide public support, as Mr. Kesich noted.

I hope that the Legislature and the governor will pass this bill into law, and take the first step in addressing this problem constructively. Individuals, families and the state of Maine itself will benefit by treating addiction as an illness rather than a crime.

Ellen Grunblatt, MD, LCPC
Jay

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