BANGOR, Maine — For Rep. Bruce Poliquin, the battle against opioid addiction is personal.
“I’m involved in this, in part, because my brother is no longer with us,” he said Tuesday night during the Operation Community SAFER (Supporting Area Families to Enable Recovery) forum at Eastern Maine Community College. “Here was a great guy with a big heart. A great musician,” a man who died too young because of his drug addiction.
Poliquin, who hosted the congressional town hall event, said that his brother, Jim, is just one of the casualties of opiate addiction.
A founding member of the congressional Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, Poliquin said the idea for Operation Community SAFER came from conversations he’s had about the state’s opioid epidemic.
“I know what it’s like to be embarrassed and not know what to do. To feel hopeless, to not know where to go, [or] who can help. I also know that you can’t give up. And we love our kids, our siblings and our parents,” he said.
Poliquin recalled the constant worries that his brother was sick or injured or that someone who was with him would get hurt.
While Poliquin said he is doing what he can to bring funding home to Maine to expand treatment options, “Washington moves very slowly, frustratingly slowly.” Tuesday’s forum, he said, was an opportunity for the community to say, “We can get help right now.”
The forum focused on practical prevention and early intervention tips, a look at the different types of substance abuse treatment programs available, and an overview of drugs’ impacts on the brain.
Arguably the most powerful message came from a woman in recovery. Ashley Leavitt, 36, was a Brewer High School graduate who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, making the rank of sergeant and being deployed to the Middle East before her honorable discharge. She returned to Maine and found work.
“I was a respected member of society. I worked at Lowe’s. I became a manager,” she said.
And then a series of crises struck. She began to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, ending up on disability from the Veterans Administration. She injured her back but said the VA didn’t help her.
“That’s how I got involved with opiates,” she said. “I had to do something. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get out of bed.”
It started with the prescription painkiller Percocet, which she said she would buy on the street to manage her pain, but when that became too expensive, a friend suggested she try heroin.
Before long, her addiction had spiraled out of control. She began stealing from loved ones and pawned most of her belongings.
“I lied to everyone around me,” she said. “Addiction is a disease. It make you do things you’d never [otherwise] do,” she said.
“I remember wanting to stop so bad, but I couldn’t tell anybody. I didn’t want to lose anybody. I didn’t want to lose my boyfriend. I didn’t want to lose my mother,” she said.
“If I could get one message across to anybody in here, you know your child, your spouse, your parent — if you know they’re using, confront them,” she said. “Tell them that you love them, that you’re not going anywhere, that you’re not going to leave them. They want to stop, and they need your help.”
Other speakers during the event included Bangor Public Health and Community Services Prevention Coordinator Robin Carr Slauenwhite, Wellspring Executive Director Pat Kimball and Larry Tyler of Families and Children Together.
Attendees also were able to meet with eastern Maine prevention, treatment, law enforcement and health care leaders.
The session concluded with a Circle of Caring challenge, which is a social media campaign intended to show how the community is united in surrounding and supporting people struggling with opioid use disorders in the region and raising funds for education and immediate support for those in crisis.