2018 ME Governor's race: on Drugs

Betsy Sweet: Expand substance abuse treatment

• Treat opioid addiction as a health issue not a criminal issue, and treat it accordingly.
• Move addicts from prison to community-based treatment. Over 65% of prison inmates have addiction and behavioral health problems, and only 11% receive treatment in jail. It costs over $50,000/year to house a prisoner in Maine; let's spend that money on treatment services that benefit both the recovering addicts, their families and communities.
• Expand Medicaid to cover 80,000 new people. This is the single biggest, fastest, and most effective step we can take to expand substance abuse treatment in Maine.
• Incentivize treatment for the whole person, not just the addiction. We need to look at the life circumstances and the emotional pain that feeds the addiction at its core and provide the services necessary to address those issues.

Betsy Sweet: Legalize and promote industrial hemp

Shawn Moody: Strengthen criminal code & stem tide of illegal trafficking

FIGHTING THE OPIOID CRISIS.
• Work with our schools to bring a new focus on drug education, impacts of opioid abuse, and long term effects of heavy drug use.
• Work with the federal government to ensure strong borders to stem the tide of illegal drug trafficking while keeping an eye on interstate drug trafficking routes.
• Support peer-to-peer recovery efforts like the AA model, and other treatment options, where those in recovery can serve as real-life mentors for others battling addiction.
• Strengthen our criminal code for addictive opioid drug trafficking and tools to track the traffickers.

Janet Mills: Investigate role of opioid manufacturers in drug abuse

Mary Mayhew: Joint effort needed to provide effective drug treatment