Governor Paul LePage made an unannounced appearance in the Legislature on Thursday, telling lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee that there’s a “dire need” for a response to the state’s drug epidemic.
On August of this year, according to the Boston Globe, he told WVOM-FM in Bangor he would use the National Guard “if necessary” to help with the heroin and other drugs epidemic. He added he has the authority to use the guard if the state legislature refuses to give him the funding he has asked for.
A week before his appearance on WVOM-FM, he told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network that he’ll use ‘‘everything legally possible” to attack the epidemic, and was convening a “drug summit. He made it clear then he believes in a hard line about the state’s drug problem.
But the drug summit, held on August 26 in Augusta was attended by more law enforcement officials than rehabilitation and health officials, and the three-hour meeting was closed to the public and news media. This didn’t sit well with the governor’s critics. The biggest thing to come out of the meeting was an announcement of a new intelligence group within the Maine State Police to gather and distribute information about drug dealers.
On Thursday’s surprise visit, Gov. LePage didn’t mince words. He told the lawmakers, “You either work with me and give me some agents, or I will call the Guard up.” The legislature did come up with funding last session for six additional state drug agents, two judges and two drug prosecutors to handle major drug crimes, but LePage said that was not enough.
Maine and the rest of New England is dealing with an epidemic of addiction and deaths associated with opioids, legal and illegal. Last year, Maine had a record 208 deaths from drug overdoses, and eight percent of all the babies born last year had mothers who were drug users.
Federal law limits how military personnel in the National Guard can be used to enforce domestic law. However, John Goheen from the National Guard Association of the United States says the Guard can be used for law enforcement if the governor calls them up for active duty in the state.
“Counter-narcotics is a fairly specific type of law enforcement. Theoretically, (National Guard personnel) could be used to back-fill and provide some equipment,” Goheen said Friday. LePage wasn’t specific in what he would have the Guard do if he did call them up.
