PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Aroostook County residents took their campaign for access to the anti-overdose drug naloxone to the streets last week.
After their letters to local legislators didn’t receive a response, five women hit Main Street in Presque Isle on Wednesday to protest Gov. Paul Lepage’s veto of L.D. 1547 before the veto was overrode on Friday.
The bill would make naloxone, an opiate overdose reversing drug, available at pharmacies without perscription. It also would give police and fire departments a supply of narcan.
“We just want to keep people alive until the EMTs get there,” said Sarah LeClair, an organizer of the protest.
Gov. LePage’s veto letter states that the drug does not save lives, but extends them until the next overdose.
LeClair said the governor made a moral judgment about a disease.
“That’s a pretty slippery slope because we could also say the same thing about a diabetic that goes off their diet. We could say the same thing about a victim of cancer who continues to smoke or who has smoked,” LeClair said.
Alice Bolstridge came out to support the bill, saying she thinks it’s crazy a family be denied an antidote to save a loved one’s life. She knows what it’s like to have a family member struggling with drug addiction. Bolstridge’s son faced a drug addiction but didn’t overdose she said.
Bolstridge said that there is a stigma surrounding addiction and that the governor’s veto encourages it.
LeClair believes loved ones of those at risk of overdosing need access to the drug.
“Friends and family are most likely to be present and witness an overdose and call 911,” she said.
Editor’s note: Despite all the controversy, the bill had an easy time to enactment on Friday, with a 29-5 vote in the Senate and a 132-14 vote in the House.
