Drug statistics are another wake-up call

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    The revelation from the attorney general’s office last week that Maine’s fatal drug overdose almost set a new record last year is quite unsettling.
    One of the reasons I moved to Maine in the 1970s was because it was a much safer state than New York. I wanted my kids to be able to attend school without being robbed of their lunch money.

    Those days seem like ancient history now. We’ve lost our innocence. If today’s headlines reflect “Maine — The Way Life Should Be,” we’re in real trouble.
    There were plenty of crimes back in the 1970s, but most of them were driven by domestic disputes, grudges or excessive booze. Drug-related crimes were usually limited to the “big cities” of Lewiston and Portland.
    Bangor was relatively peaceful back then. I never thought I’d see the day when three young people would be gunned down and their car incinerated over a drug deal gone sour.
    I used to leave my car doors unlocked when I went shopping. Not anymore. In addition to securing my vehicle, I make sure nothing valuable is left on the seats in plain view.
    There have been enough studies conducted on why we’re turning into a stoned society to fill a 10-gig flash drive. Unfortunately, solutions are elusive.
    Everyone over the age of 7 knows that popping pills, snorting coke or injecting heroin in your veins is going to fry your brain eventually. During the process, you’ll wind up either dead broke or dead.
    So why do they do it? Sociologists claim that poverty, boredom and a sense of hopelessness are part of the reason. Ironically, it costs a small fortune to feed a drug habit. So users wind up compounding the problems, not escaping from them.
    One thing we have now that wasn’t around in the 1970s is a barrage of drug ads on television. During the 6:30 p.m. national news last week, I counted nine within a half hour. You name it — they could cure it.
    So considering the number of hours the average kid spends in watching TV, they’re probably growing up thinking that medication use is the rule, not the exception.
    The cost of a stoned society is staggering when you add up the expenses of law enforcement, the judicial system and incarceration.
    Employers have to deal with “sick days” that really aren’t. Hospitals have to write off thousands each year to treat overdoses.
    Some people feel that drug use has peaked in Maine and we’ll start seeing numbers go down eventually. I wish I was that optimistic.
    The cynical side of me has no sympathy for druggies. You choose — you lose.
    Then I realize that some of these so-called losers were once bright-eyed toddlers or honor students in high school. Somehow — for whatever reason — they strayed down a tragic path.
    Even though 176 drug-related deaths is a scary figure, Maine is still ranked 38th in the nation in per-capita fatalities. So maybe there’s hope after all.
    We’re all in this together — and we can’t hide from it.
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.