Tully: Indiana’s drug crisis begs us to come together

 Matthew Tully

Can Indiana’s leaders put politics aside and look for significant ways to tackle a troubling drug crisis? Examples of such cooperation are rare of late. Hopefully, this will be an exception.

Over the past two years I have spent time with infants struggling with cruel opiate dependencies, once-promising young men and women now locked up in prison or in their own personal hells, and parents who have forever lost the children who meant absolutely everything to them.

So forgive me if I see nothing but good in Gov. Mike Pence’s announcement Tuesday of a task force aimed at addressing the growing and heartbreaking trend of drug abuse and addiction in Indiana. And forgive me if I’m inclined to dismiss the partisan professionals and social media geniuses who used the announcement as another chance to divide and mock.

There is a time for looking back and determining whether the governor has done enough to address Indiana’s problems. We will have that political debate. We have it every day, and I’ve certainly taken part in it. But what’s more important now is that we as Hoosiers find a way to come together to address a problem of drug addiction that is, as Pence so accurately put it, costing us “our sons and daughters, our neighbors and friends.”

“The time has come for a fresh approach to how we address drug addiction,” the governor said Tuesday morning, adding: “Together is the best way to reduce, prevent and treat drug addiction in Indiana.”

He is right.

And if ever there was an issue that should be free of partisanship, this is it. If ever there was an issue that could inspire a state to come together, to work together, and to hope together, this is it. This is about an epidemic that has smashed through urban, rural and suburban divides, as well as through racial, economic and just about every other sort of divide. There is no downside to coming together on this issue, and there is every incentive.

Listen, I don’t want to act as if a task force can solve a problem as complex as this one or eliminate the abuse of meth, prescription drugs, heroin and synthetic drugs. But it can improve the way we are addressing a painful and destructive crisis that is destroying lives and tearing apart families, putting children at risk through no fault of their own, and costing the state dearly in both human and financial terms.

So let’s embrace this effort — if by doing nothing else than keeping it free of political divisions and other unhelpful arguments.

We can fight over so much else. We don’t need to fight over this issue. We don’t need knee-jerk criticisms from those paid to divide us, like the Indiana Democratic Party, which blasted Pence in a news release Tuesday even before he had finished talking.

Why not treat this one issue differently than so many others? Why not say that on this one issue we are not going to fight or point fingers but rather rally and root for success? Let’s save the finger-pointing for those who going forward stand in the way of doing important things.

If you think uniting is just a fantasy, please picture for a moment the babies struggling with opiate dependence in the state’s neonatal intensive care units. Or the moms and dads who now have only pictures of their children to hug. Or the young children whose heartbreaking stories of neglect and abuse are overwhelming the Department of Child Services. Or the state’s new HIV epidemic.

The governor’s words of empathy for those caught up in desperate worlds of addiction were important and wise because there is a lot of judgment floating around these days. Harsh judgment. Hurtful judgment. Unhelpful judgment. Judgment that seems to miss the reality that good people fall into addiction, and that the collateral damage is brutal. This is about those suffering from the disease of addiction but also about their children and parents, their friends and communities.

The governor took steps Tuesday to put this issue at the center of our political conversation, and that’s a good thing. In the end, of course, he and others in political leadership must display the wisdom and courage to accept the hard truths that the task force’s conversations will expose.

Some politicians will be forced to accept that improvements do not always fit into comfortable ideological boxes, and that fighting a crisis demands resources. Others, though, will need to understand that this isn’t only about money, and that spending resources on popular programs that don’t work is a mistake.

The task force is being asked to listen to experts on the ground and to bring back ideas that will help Indiana tackle this epidemic in smart, comprehensive and compassionate ways. So for once let’s put politics aside. Let’s put bumper-sticker solutions aside. Let’s put our cynicism aside. And let’s embrace an opportunity to come together to fight a crisis that is costing so many of our neighbors far too much.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@Indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.

Matt Lloyd

Deputy Chief of Staff, Communications and Strategy

Governor Mike Pence

317-864-0884 (cell)