By any measure, the last two years have brought a glimmer of hope in our nation’s long and brutal fight against the overdose crisis. Fatal drug overdose in the United States is down by nearly 30%. In Maine, deaths have dropped by 32% over two years, from a high of 723 in 2022 to 490 in 2024. These numbers are still horrifying — nearly 500 lives lost in one year in a state of just over a million people — but they mark real, life-saving progress.

That progress is fragile. And right now, it’s under threat.

What we’re seeing in the Trump administration’s proposed drug policy is nothing short of reckless. It flies in the face of science, public health evidence and the lived experiences of millions of Americans. At a moment when we should be doubling down on what’s working, the Trump team is proposing deep, dangerous cuts to the very institutions that have helped move the needle: the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Medicaid — the backbone of health care access for so many people in recovery.

Let’s be clear: there is no single reason overdose deaths are falling. Fentanyl remains a deadly presence, and shifts in supply and potency might be playing a role. But most experts agree that it’s the slow, hard, often invisible work of public health interventions that are turning the tide — a state-by-state patchwork of efforts focused on evidence-based treatment, peer-led recovery programs, broad naloxone distribution, harm reduction and prevention education.

In Maine, this coordinated approach includes the expansion of treatment beds, the distribution of overdose reversal medication by the hundreds of thousands and community-based peer recovery centers helping people rebuild their lives. They’re not flashy. They don’t lend themselves to political soundbites. But they save lives. And these efforts are supported by the very federal funding under threat.

Cutting SAMHSA’s budget by nearly $1 billion — as President Trump is proposing — would gut the infrastructure we’ve spent years building. Halving the CDC’s funding, which is also on the table, means slashing the very surveillance and support systems that allow us to see where overdoses are rising and respond in real time. And perhaps most damaging of all, Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts would strip more than 7 million Americans of health care coverage, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

For anyone seeking recovery or helping someone through it, health care isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifeline. Medication-assisted treatment, mental health support, housing referrals — all of it depends on accessing and affording basic services. Without that support, the road to recovery can become impossible. Without it, overdose becomes more likely. Without it, death becomes more likely.

It’s easy to talk tough about drugs. It’s harder to build systems that actually work. The Trump administration is offering political posturing dressed up as policy. Mainers know all too well where this leads.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, fatal overdoses soared to record-breaking levels, killing more Americans than the pandemic itself. But that wasn’t just our isolation or despair — it was because the support systems people relied upon collapsed due to underfunding and inattention.

Anyone who’s lost a loved one, anyone who’s walked the long road of recovery, anyone who’s worked in a shelter, a treatment program or in harm reduction outreach knows what it takes. And they know how much is at stake. Mainers understand this. Our research shows that one’s exposure to substance use disorder is one of the most important predictors of support for life-saving public health measures. Nearly everyone in Maine has now watched someone we care about struggle with substance use disorder or lose their lives to overdose.

Our research also shows that, as a result, Mainers across party lines overwhelmingly support the very measures the Trump administration is intent on defunding.

Now is the time to speak out — to educate our community members on the connection between public health investment and real, measurable progress in the overdose crisis. Now is the time to pressure lawmakers to resist these cruel, shortsighted budget proposals.

We’ve clawed our way back from the brink. Let’s not go back.