Public Forum on Drug Issues

In what started as a public forum to talk about the issue of bath salts and how to better police new drug substances, the conversation turned to other issues important to the public.

At the meeting, a panel of experts talked about the danger of designer drugs and advocated a quicker path to making them illegal. The bath salts were legally sold for some time before the government was able to pass legislation to regulate the products. These products were purportedly sold for one purpose (bathing) but used as a synthetic, legal way to get high. Unfortunately, while the experts also made a big deal out of community involvement and finding new solutions, the next day it was announced that the Penobscot County Drug Court is closing its doors.

So, on the one hand we have some good ideas and experts who tell us what should be done. On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be enough funding to keep everything we’d like up and running. As always, it’s a matter of trying to find the cheapest solution that meets the goals we set.

The closing of the drug court is particularly disappointing. Studies have shown that drug courts, when done right, actually cost less than incarceration for some segment of the drug using populations. But the problem is a political one. Our citizens are concerned about crime and are willing to fund it. We are less concerned about helping those who are often labeled as the criminals – even when such help is shown to reduce overall crime.

Meanwhile, bath salts that have the synthetic amphetamine in them are only a ticket for possession and a misdemeanor for trafficking. And once again, the call is for more penalties and harsher enforcement – rather than using the opportunity to intervene in a troubled person’s life, perhaps before they really get deeply tied up with drugs.