When it comes to slowing the crisis of preventable opioid overdose deaths in Maine, it’s time we collectively cried mercy.

Despite our state’s best efforts, the number of deaths have only increased in recent years. Overdoses claimed the lives of 716 of our neighbors, friends and family members in 2022. Each year, law enforcement removes more fentanyl from the streets and busts more traffickers, yet the death toll keeps on rising.

If simply removing the supply of opioids from the streets was sufficient to slow the pace of this rolling tragedy, we’d have seen results by now.

If the purpose of the “war on drugs” is to save lives and create public safety, it’s time to admit we’ve lost. We need a new approach. Thankfully, effective, compassionate, safe and merciful life-saving solutions do exist if we’re willing to try them. One such approach is to permit harm reduction health centers in Maine.

Other states are finally starting to heed the call and pick up on the successful efforts that other countries have been pursuing for decades. New York, Rhode Island and Minnesota have all recently established or are in the process of establishing harm reduction health centers, with the federal government allocating $5 million this year to study their effectiveness. The American Medical Association has said that Harm Reduction Health Centers “… reduce the number of overdose deaths, reduce transmission rates of infectious disease and increase the number of individuals initiating treatment for substance use disorders without increasing drug trafficking or crime in the areas where the facilities are located.”

Maine can be a leader in this movement and save countless lives by embracing these centers now.

Harm reduction health centers are facilities where people who use drugs can consume previously obtained drugs under the supervision of peer support specialists and medical personnel. Worldwide, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, not a single overdose death has ever been recorded in a harm reduction health center. They offer low-barrier access to treatment and recovery services, and they reduce public consumption and litter associated with drug use. The bill earned initial approval in a 77-66 vote in the House on Thursday.

L.D. 1364, “An Act to Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths by Harm Reduction Health Centers,” would allow municipalities to establish these facilities in their communities, if they chose to as part of their opioid use response, with no cost to either the state or the participating municipalities.

Most experts agree that treating opioid use disorder as a criminal problem only serves to further stigmatize users and force them deeper into the shadows from which far too many never reemerge.

Substance use is a complex phenomenon compounded by trauma, social isolation, and behavioral and mental health issues. Going after low-level, non-violent users of opioids and other drugs using the tools of the criminal legal system only serves to increase the number of people struggling with mental and behavioral health issues in our state’s prisons and jails. We need to extend real hope, access to treatment and recovery, and opportunities for individuals to rebuild their lives and participate in their communities all across Maine. We need harm reduction health centers.

The opioid overdose crisis has touched the lives of everyone in our state, regardless of political party, creed, class or ethnicity. These deaths of despair can be reduced by L.D. 1364. Lives can be rebuilt if it is enacted and allows for harm reduction health centers in participating municipalities. It is the merciful approach for Maine.

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