In an attempt to stanch the flow of drugs into Maine, Gov. Paul LePage is convening a so-called “drug summit” Wednesday, Aug. 26. The meeting is designed to get statewide and federal officials together to think up ways to defeat traffickers, the source of all misery associated with the drug trade. If you can stop the trafficking, you stop the cycle of addiction, LePage says.

While the half-century-old War on Drugs has failed when it comes to creating a drug-free America, we hope this renewed statewide effort pays dividends – but we’re not holding our breath. The governor is on the right track, however. Drugs ruin users’ lives and cost taxpayers millions between police, courts and treatment programs. And they drag down the general welfare of a society. Because it’s an international problem, it needs an international solution. LePage, though limited in his influence as the governor of a small state at one end of the drug pipeline, has invited local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshal’s Service and federal Drug Enforcement Agency officers, to the summit, because he says the problem needs a multilateral approach from various levels of policing agencies. Also attending will be Maine’s chief justice and attorney general, the commissioner of public safety as well as addiction treatment and recovery advocates. The goal of the panel will be to determine how Maine should handle the drug-trafficking crisis from a law enforcement and judicial perspective.

We applaud these efforts, and we agree with LePage that the traffickers are the real problem. But if LePage is really serious about stopping drugs, he is in for the fight of his term. Drugs come into Maine via plane, train and automobile and all other forms of transportation. We’re sure the dealers would ride a tricycle across a remote state line if they had to, since there are big bucks to be reaped. We hope the officials attending this summit have the same resolve as the dealers.

There’s a policy split forming in how officials want to attack the wide-ranging drug problem. While LePage is clearly wanting to tackle the enforcement side of the equation, others are saying more money and effort need to be spent on treatment. As an example showing this split in emphasis on how to spend limited resources, LePage requested almost two-dozen more Maine Drug Enforcement Agency personnel during the recent budget battle with the Legislature. Lawmakers agreed to six additional agents, which LePage said was not enough. LePage is hoping to make an end run around his opponents by enlisting the Maine National Guard to help with enforcement, though he’s declined to provide specifics of what that really means. Will Guard members search every vehicle coming over any border? While that may root out the dealers, we hope we never see that level of enforcement.

Prevention and treatment are the other sides of the equation. Besides enforcement, we hope the governor gets more serious about treatment of addicts. State statistics show that between 15 percent and 36 percent of people admitted to treatment complete it. Those figures show there are many addicts being let out without having conquering their dependency issues. While some kick the habit, many don’t and help to further fuel the drug trade.

Earlier this week, as a response to the disturbing increase in national heroin overdoses, including in Portland, where 14 people recently overdosed during a 24-hour period, the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy announced a $2.5 million initiative to be split among 15 states, including Maine, to address the heroin epidemic. The money will be used to hire two regional coordinators, one with a public health focus and the other with a public safety focus, who will oversee a heroin response team. The goal is to save lives, educate first responders on the local level in treating heroin and opiate overdoses and ultimately disrupting the heroin supply. This effort seems to synchronize well with the governor’s aims, and it seems more than a happy coincidence that the federal efforts are ramping up along with Maine’s.

The drug war won’t be easily won, as history to date has proven. But the fight is a necessary one and the governor should be praised for calling a summit and looking outside Maine for help, since without federal support and input, Maine will be hard-pressed to make a dent in what is an international trade.

We also applaud LePage for his willingness to enter the fray (in a positive way, this time), and hope the result isn’t just more bluster and posturing by officials. We all want to see an end to the death and misery created by drugs, and the local gangs and vast networks that push them.

­-John Balentine, managing editor