I’m a harm reduction clinician and navigator with six years of higher education and 15 years lived experience. I’m a mother, wife and have lived in recovery for years. I have used drugs, possessed drugs, reversed overdoses and experienced incarceration. I have worked hard to get to a place where I know my voice has value and power. I am tired of seeing loved ones, clients and community partners silenced by the criminalization of substance use – silenced by shame, silenced by death. I believe that all Mainers deserve to be loved fiercely, without condition, and treated with dignity.

Maine has always been safe and welcoming to me. But as friends continue to die from preventable overdoses and sit in cages because they possessed drugs – the same drugs I once possessed – I’m feeling differently about the place I call home. It feels as though we only allow certain people – those can access treatment and live in recovery – to live.

Is this how we treat folks with heart failure, cancer or diabetes? Would we shame them for not exercising, lock them in a cell for unhealthy eating? Would we question their pain, withholding medication? Awful, right? Then why is it OK for this disease?

Addressing problematic substance use from a public health standpoint makes sense. Research shows it is cost-effective, promotes community safety and saves lives. Look at the data, talk to experts. We must stop looking at people who use drugs as “less than” and proceed with evidence-based policies that are created with dignity and respect.

Kayty Robbins
Windham