|
MACHIAS - The state's top public safety official said Wednesday he will make arrangements by July 1 to provide Washington County with a second Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agent.Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara saved his announcement for the end of his keynote address at the Washington County Drug Summit, saying that additional law enforcement is "at the tailpipe end of things" when it comes to addressing the county's epidemic of opiate addiction. Government can and should play a role in problems such as drug abuse and domestic violence, but community-based approaches work best, he said. "I think what distinguishes you is that you are all here and you are working on this," Cantara told about 50 people gathered for the summit at the University of Maine at Machias. The Machias session and an almost identical gathering planned for Calais today are sponsored by the Washington County Drug Action Team, a group of municipal and county officials, educators, social service providers, law enforcement personnel and community members who are working to address the problem of opiate addiction. The problem has plagued Washington County for the past five years. Cantara's comments followed the morning program, which included panel presentations on the extent of the county's drug problem and what is being done to address it. Sheriff Joseph Tibbetts said the county's adult Drug Court - an intensive, judge-supervised program where people who commit drug-related crimes are given an opportunity to get off and stay off drugs - is the county's only long-term treatment program. Tibbetts said 23 people are enrolled in Drug Court, seven have already graduated and 12 have been put out of the program. Admission to the program requires screening to determine the extent of an applicant's addiction and, according to Drug Court guidelines, any score above 41/2 indicates that the addiction is too severe for the court program, Tibbetts said. All Drug Court applicants in Washington County scored at least 41/2, the sheriff said. Marci Sorg of the Margaret Chase Center for Public Policy at the University of Maine said drug abuse is increasing coast to coast, but that Washington County has a "disproportionate" problem with opiate addiction. Opiates accounted for one-third of the people from Washington County who sought drug treatment in 2002. In Maine, as a whole, 10 percent of those who sought treatment did so for opiate addiction, Sorg said. State Rep. George Bunker, the Kossuth Township Democrat who is the House chair of the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, said opiates account for three-quarters of all drug cases that go to court in Washington County. The problem is taking a huge toll in terms of both current and prospective employers, according to Dianne Tilton, executive director of the Sunrise County Economic Council, and William Guptill, owner of Guptill Farms Inc. in Wesley. Guptill said he hires up to 200 people for two to three weeks during the wild blueberry harvest and has seen "young kids who were really good workers" fall into drug abuse and the crimes that support their habits. Guptill said his company installed motion-sensor cameras and alarms, but lost tens of thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment this year alone. "We know it was an inside job," he said. "They had to work there to know where to come in so it wouldn't set off alarms." Tilton said that up until a couple of years ago, Washington County had a reputation for a "top notch" work force. Now, Tilton said, she has to find some way to "undo the perception out there that all those people in Washington County care about are drugs." Cantara said there is no magic answer to the problem- but if there is, it is what the county is doing to bring people together to address the problem rather than denying its existence. "With denial comes loneliness for families and the person affected," Cantara said. "What I've heard this morning is very encouraging. You may become the 'go to' people in the state because of your work."
CLOSE THIS WINDOW |