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Steve Marchand on Drugs |
Marchand: We need to continue to provide the resources that continue to give a suite of services to those in the midst of recovery, beyond simply detoxification of the addictive substance. Until recently, I think a lot of people in the world of politics saw recovery as largely detoxification. The reality is that if we simply just detoxify people and then we put folks back in a situation where addiction became the norm, the likelihood of relapsing is really high. I priced it out last year in that it would be an additional $8 to 10 million a year of resources that would provide a level of stability for local and regional recovery centers. I think it's a relatively low amount of money, that would improve lives, reduce costs, and directly address what New Hampshirites say is the most important issue facing us.
Marchand: I do favor the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. I do feel it would have a net positive impact in terms of lowering costs for law enforcement and judicial entities. I also think that it will improve health outcomes and reduce addiction rates, and it will generate revenue.
A: The good news is that the solution is not a ton of money, necessarily. It is some legislative changes, it is more effective use of the state's database. Some of it, frankly, is cultural. It requires that we have to be more aggressive in fully funding drug courts, to really get us in a position where we're not trying to punish and incarcerate, we're trying to rehabilitate and get towards recovery. And the wait list is where the real problem is--we have 13 health zones in the state--in most of those we have a waiting list. We have people on a weekly basis dying, waiting on the waiting list. So I sat down with a bunch of people trying to start recovery centers around the state, and did budgets with them. I asked them to price it out. The price tag? Smaller than you'd think--typically about $300,000-$500,000 a year on average, per recovery center. This is an $8-10 million initiative that I've been looking at.
A: I favor the legalization of marijuana. First of all, I do not think it's a gateway drug to other drugs. Second, we have seen lots of studies that we actually reduce use in certain groups. You legalize it, you regulate it, you tax it. We can actually help public health by reducing its use under 21 and doing it responsibly for those that, frankly, already doing it over the age of 21.