Promising a “fresh approach” to tackling Indiana’s substance-abuse crisis, Gov. Mike Pence met with Northwest Indiana officials Wednesday to get their recommendations for the drug task force he formed this week.
“If you’re dealing drugs to our kids, we’re coming for you,” Pence said at the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point, where he was joined by state and local law enforcement, public health and social services officials. “But if you’re caught up in the web of addiction, my strong and passionate belief is that the state of Indiana owes it to ourselves, to our future and to our families to make sure Hoosiers know the treatment options that are available.”
Indiana saw a tenfold increase in the number of deaths from heroin overdoses from 2005 to 2013 and ranks 16th in the U.S. for drug overdoses, according to state and federal health agencies. In calling for a more comprehensive approach to fighting the drug war, Pence joins a chorus of public officials nationwide who are calling for a diversion of resources from jailing to treating drug addicts.
“We simply cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” he said. “We have to address the root causes that are driving abuse and addiction.”
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said law enforcement officials have traditionally been told to simply lock up drug offenders when that may be causing more harm than good. He praised a new state crime bill that allows judges to suspend drug sentences. “If you’re out there profiting from sending out this poison, you should go to jail,” he said. “But the ones that they’re feeding this poison to need some help.”
He noted that many of the murders that take place in Lake County involve marijuana dealers fighting over turf. He blames the increase in demand on states like Colorado legalizing marijuana and celebrities — he mentioned Kanye West’s speech at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards where the rapper admitted to being high — glorifying the drug.
“That sends a message that there’s nothing wrong with marijuana,” he said. “In the meantime, these young black men are fighting and killing one another over, ‘I’m going to sell it to you.'”
Whether it’s marijuana in urban Lake County or heroin and methaphetamine in rural Porter County, the problem of drugs affects the entire state, officials said.”The drugs are the same, whether they’re used in Lafayette or in Lake County,” said Mary Beth Bonaventura, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services and member of the substance-abuse task force.
The formation of the task force follows the recent diagnosis of more than 180 cases of HIV in rural southeast Indiana, which was caused by users of a prescription painkiller sharing dirty needles. During the outbreak, the largest in state history, Pence authorized a needle exchange program in Scott County, and the legislature this year passed a law allowing such programs, which were previously illegal in the state, in counties with high rates of HIV and hepatitis C infections.
But Pence said Wednesday that perhaps what most motivated him to act was the recent sharp increase in child abuse and neglect cases in Indiana, the vast majority of which involved substance abuse in the home.
“Our administration is prepared to make changes in policy and in practice and in resources to more effectively confront this challenge,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, this is about our families, this is about our kids, this is about our communities.”
