Rep. Day Op-Ed: 'Changing Our Approach to Substance Abuse'

When I was growing up, my recollection is that many teenagers experimented with alcohol and marijuana. The really “fast” crowd likely used cocaine but to me and my friends, heroin use was limited to stories about junkies in urban wastelands. Whether my perception of my adolescent years is realistic or distorted by the prism of selective recall, it is far from our current reality.

Last year, 1,659 people in Massachusetts died from a documented overdose of painkillers or heroin. These numbers will climb. We have already lost more than 750 people this year to overdose deaths, and many more are trapped in a cycle of substance abuse that too often ends in death. These deaths are not limited to urban areas, and the epidemic knows no boundaries: it cuts across all ages, races, genders, and income levels.

There is no singular cure for this epidemic. To combat this problem, we need a multi-faceted and holistic approach to substance use and substance use disorder. The “war on drugs” was, by and large, an expensive failure because of its almost exclusive focus on imprisoning users. Scaring individuals straight does not work in a vacuum, nor does sending individuals to voluntary or involuntary detoxification programs without follow-up care. Yet there are parts of all of these initiatives that, when combined, can lead to a better approach to this societal ill.

One of my top priorities in the Legislature has been to change the way we view and treat substance abuse. As a member of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee, I helped pass comprehensive substance abuse legislation that is already serving as a national model. We listened to professionals in health care, in law enforcement, in addiction treatment, and in recovery, and we produced legislation that begins to modernize our approach to this problem. Our new laws mandate insurance coverage for detoxification and step-down recovery programs, enhance intervention and prevention efforts, and require our schools to increase educational programming and our medical professionals to increase opioid training. This is progress.

As a society, we have been staggered by the influx of cheap, highly addictive and fatal drugs. I have been to too many wakes, met with too many families, and listened to the testimony of too many parents who have lost children to drug dealing predators. In response, I co-sponsored and helped pass a new law that finally criminalizes the trafficking of Fentanyl, a synthetic drug that is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin and far more fatal.

While I will support increased penalties and incarceration of traffickers of illegal drugs, I have and will continue to successfully advocate for more diversionary efforts for those battling addiction. During my time working as a Special Assistant District Attorney, I saw firsthand how effective “drug courts” can be in providing individuals with an alternative path to incarceration. An individual who completes the rigorous requirements of drug court, which include treatment, drug testing, aftercare and employment, can avoid a criminal record. This improves public health, cuts down on our prison population, and gets the judicial system out of the business of criminalizing addiction.

Addiction is a disease involving both physical and mental illness and injury. We must stop treating injuries and illnesses of the mind different than we do injuries and illnesses of the body. I am committed to changing the way we as a society treat and speak about mental health and mental illness, and I will not stop working to increase mental health treatment opportunities for all.

Of course, our state government cannot change the tide on its own. I am incredibly fortunate to represent Stoneham and Winchester in the State House, and our communities are blessed to have two model coalitions dedicated to attacking this epidemic: in Winchester, we have the Coalition for a Safer Community; in Stoneham, we have the Substance Abuse Coalition. Both groups are comprised of representatives from all groups in our communities, including police, fire, schools, senior centers, elected boards, families in recovery, and health care professionals. These groups are on the front lines of this battle, and we should be supporting their work and attending their programs.

We are going to lose more treasured lives to the demon of drug addiction in the coming months and even years. The “solution” to this problem lies in recognizing that no one individual, program or initiative will begin to stem this tide on its own. We are all affected by this epidemic, and I hope you will join me and many of your friends and colleagues by discussing it openly with your family, by supporting those battling addiction, and by stepping forward to support a variety of approaches.

Editor's Note: This post was submitted by State Representative Michael S. Day. The views expressed in this post are the author's.