I have lived in Lewiston for 40 years. The last 12 years of my professional career I was the executive director of Community Clinical Services, a federally qualified health center affiliated with St. Mary’s Health System.

I was in charge of 23 sites, including five school-based health centers. It was clear then that substance use disorder was just that … a disorder that needed to be treated.

L.D. 1975 is a bi-partisan bill designed to save lives. We lose nearly two lives per day in Maine to drug overdose, and it is going up. Mainers using substances cannot access the care they need.

We must address drug use with a public health response. Not by spending $111 million yearly on the arrest, prosecution, defense and incarceration of those suffering with substance use.

We must create the funding necessary to enhance access to treatment and related services for the victims of this disorder. We must facilitate the establishment of receiving centers in every county in the state. Finally, we must remove penalties for the possession of small amounts of scheduled drugs for personal use while maintaining legal ramifications in line with current legal frameworks.

L.D. 1975 does all of these through a comprehensive, holistic and compassionate statewide public health approach to substance use. What we are doing is not working, and we are just making matters worse for users and their families through criminalization and societal stigma.

I hope people join with me to encourage our elected state officials to support L.D. 1975.

Jim Lysen, Lewiston