Opioid addiction has become a growing and devastating reality for many people throughout Maine. For those living on the streets, the drug crisis is nothing short of a “death sentence,” Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, told a packed public hearing before the Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday.
In an attempt to address the deadly intersection of drug addiction and homelessness, Gattine has introduced legislation that would provide treatment and housing options to help support recovery for the state’s most vulnerable populations.
“We need to meet people where they’re at. Anything less is a death sentence,” Gattine told the audience.
LD 1711—otherwise known as “Resolve, To Save Lives by Establishing a Homeless Opioid Users Service Engagement Pilot Project (H.O.U.S.E.)”—addresses those most vulnerable to the opioid crisis by establishing a pilot program to provide Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), such as Suboxone or methodone, stable housing, as well as daily therapy and mental health services for 50 homeless people in Maine.
Such a program can’t come soon enough, according to those working on the front lines of this crisis.
“Last year, for an unprecedented once every eight days Preble Street staff had to respond to life-threatening overdoses. For us, it is as real and as tragic as it comes,” said Mark Swann, executive director of the Portland-based homeless resource center. “Every day—every single day—people plead with us for housing and treatment options. And every day—every single day—we can barely offer them even a glimmer of hope.”
According to Preble Street, every single person who overdosed at the center last year “sought treatment but there was none available.”
The sort of “medication first” approach proposed by LD 1711 is considered by care providers to be the “best practice” for homeless addicts, Preble Street notes. One low-barrier MAT program in Maryland produced a fifty percent reduction in overdose deaths. This model has also been found to have high treatment retention rates.
MAT is endorsed by the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, the CDC, and the World Health Organization, among others.
The bill has garnered support from all corners. Testifying at Wednesday’s hearing, Portland Police chief Michael Sauschuck noted that “if you have a safe and stable place to lay your head at night, everything else is possible. Recovery is possible. We just have to set people up for success.”
Urging the legislature to take action, one citizen shared his personal experience with addiction. “I’m here because I’m sick and tired of my friends dying and my family dying,” he told the Committee.
Over the past few years, Maine has seen some of the sharpest increases in in the country from overdose deaths. Between the year ending in May 2015 and that ending in May 2017, the rate of deaths in the state rose nearly 54 percent, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, the state legislature has taken very little action to address this growing epidemic, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.
In a direct appeal to elected officials, like Governor Paul LePage, who have been loathe to provide medication assistance to combat the opioid epidemic, Kenney Miller, executive director of the Health Equity Alliance, told the Committee: “Here’s what we’ve learned from the frontlines of the opioid epidemic: tough love doesn’t work. Today, letting people hit rock bottom is a death sentence.”
While many at the hearing acknowledged that although the need is far greater than the few dozen people who would immediately benefit, evaluation of the pilot program will inform future interventions and provide a model that can be used throughout the state.
Appearing at the meeting on behalf of LD 1711 as well as another bill, LD 1707, that would provide money for need exchange programs, Taryn Hallweaver, legislative director with the Maine People’s Alliance, said that while “none of the bills before you are commensurate to the scale of the problem…continued inaction by the legislature has already cost lives and will continue to do so.”
“These bills,” Hallweaver continued in her written testimony, “provide practical solutions and ought to be passed without delay.”
Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, introduces LD 1711 surrounded by other advocates of the legislation to combat homeless drug overdoses. (Photo via Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Sara Gideon/ Twitter)
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