To the editor:
When the Maine Attorney General Stephen Rowe sued the tobacco companies in 1998 for the cost to the state’s taxpayers of the effects of addiction to tobacco, the bottom line of the state was the negative effects of smoking on young people. Legislators placed a major educational component that would touch every student in Maine. The rehabilitation, medical and living expenses of those who get sick were competing for precious tax dollars with education costs, which are over 50 percent of the state budget because most of the 400 towns in Maine can’t afford a school system to educate their children. There is a small portion coming from the federal government; state and local taxes cover the large difference.
The annual retreat for the Power of Prevention Board, held at Lakeview Restaurant in Ste-Agathe last Thursday for staff and other volunteers was impressive to observe. Staff people are young, energetic and dynamic individuals who respond to questions with a knowledge and a facility that gives one hope that important players are on the ground to assist families, churches, schools and community to curb the substance abuse that afflicts many of our youth and adults.
We heard that people sometimes don’t understand that we’re no longer dealing with the pit parties of old when most kids would outgrow the compulsion to abuse alcohol and drugs. Lethal combinations are now being used that can hurt developing brains and cause them to devolve in a way that impacts their lives as well as those of their families and society very negatively.
Community representatives broke up in groups to list the issues confronting people of Aroostook County from birth to death and suggest possible solutions. This cadre of community leaders representing providers of health care, law enforcement, educators across the spectrum from elementary to university reinforced the decision made at the state level over a decade ago to put boots on the ground to help fight a war that is ongoing and has taken too many victims already.
Judy Ayotte Paradis
Frenchville
