Boston Mayor Talks Alcoholism, Addiction Treatment at DNC

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke about a topic that usually receives little attention on the national political scene at the Democratic National Convention Monday night. “Good evening delegates, my name is Marty Walsh and I’m an alcoholic,” Walsh said as he raised his right hand in the air. He was one of several speakers who spoke about mental health issues at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Walsh opened by describing how he hit rock bottom in 1995. “I woke up with little memory of the night before and even less hope for the days to come,” Walsh said. “Everybody was losing faith in me, everybody except my family and the labor movement.” Walsh described how the labor community supported him, helped him find a job and gave him a second chance. In previous interviews, Walsh has said the labor union’s employee assistance program helped him find addiction treatment. Walsh served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1997 until 2014, when he was elected mayor of Boston. During his mayoral campaign in 2013, Walsh told the New York Times he never stopped attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings despite more than 18 years of sobriety. The mayor spoke during prime time on the East Coast, making national headlines. Several other speakers also talked about the impact of mental health problems, substance abuse and the role of politicians in improving the mental health care system.

Celebrities, Senators, Grandmas Talk Addiction at DNC

A number of celebrities have endorsed, and opposed, Hillary Clinton’s campaign for presidency. On Monday, millennial icon Demi Lovato spoke about mental health issues at the DNC. “Like millions of Americans, I am living with mental illness,” Lovato said. “But I’m lucky. I had the resources and support to get treatment at a top facility.” In 2011, Lovato was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She has spoken publicly about recovering from cocaine addiction and an eating disorder. She’s also said she spent more than a year in a sober living facility during recovery. At the convention, Lovato explained that mental illness can lead to substance abuse, suicide and other chronic health conditions. She said millions of Americans don’t get the help they need because they fear stigma or they can’t pay how much rehab costs. “By getting educated on this epidemic and its frightening statistics, and by breaking the stigma, I urge every politician to support laws that will provide access to better health care and support for everyone,” Lovato said. Lovato was preceded by New Hampshire resident Pam Livengood and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Livengood described how opioid addiction prevented her daughter from caring for Livengood’s two-year-old grandson. Livengood raised her grandson for three years, and her daughter is in a rehab facility today. “My story isn’t unique,” Livengood said. “This epidemic has devastated communities all over the country. It doesn’t discriminate against age, race, gender or income. It affects all of us.” Shaheen followed Livengood by echoing her sentiments about the impact of addiction in the state of New Hampshire. “Statistics can’t fully capture the profound human toll,” Shaheen said. “It’s not only thousands of individual lives that have been destroyed, entire communities are being devastated… [Clinton] put together a plan to treat this like the health urgency that it is and to deploy the necessary resources to fight it.” Clinton proposed a $10 billion plan to combat addiction in 2015. She’s made her stance on the issue clear. “It’s time we recognize as a nation that for too long, we have had a quiet epidemic on our hands,” Clinton states on her website. “Plain and simple, drug and alcohol addiction is a disease, not a moral failing — and we must treat it as such.”

Republicans Host Caucus on Addiction During RNC

Addiction and mental health issues didn’t receive quite as much attention at the Republican National Convention last week. Overall, Trump has been more vocal on ways to prevent drug addiction — such as keeping drugs off the streets by walling off Mexico — and less vocal on ways to treat addiction. Conservatives hosted the first Caucus for Addiction Solutions at the Cleveland Metropolitan Board Association, a few blocks from the Quicken Loans Arena where the RNC was held, last week. During the caucus, comedian Gary Owen spoke about the impact addiction had on his family. His brother overdosed on heroin in 2015 after previous attempts to get him into treatment failed. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t be here,” Owen said. “It’s still tough for me to speak publicly about it.” Joey Supina, the executive director of an Ohio recovery center, talked about the components of a successful recovery program: hope, health, home, purpose and community. “Do you know how difficult it is to get clean and sober on a sidewalk?” Supina asked. “[They] need a safe and secure place where people love you.” Several other speakers, including development director for Change Addiction Now in Ohio Cindy Koumoutzis, U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and former speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives Craig DeRoche, talked about addiction issues. “We’re trying to punish the addiction out of people,” DeRoche said. Trump’s website does not include the candidate’s stance on addiction. The republican candidate has said drug dealers and gang members need to be taken off the street to reduce crime. In September 2015, Trump advised Iowa high school students to avoid cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs at a homecoming speech. “If you can stay away from the alcohol and stay away from the drugs, it’s a big, big barrier that you won’t have to work out,” Trump said. “It’s so important.” Trump has also blamed the country’s drug problem on the Mexican border. At the New Hampshire rally in January, Trump said the state’s drug problems started with Mexico. “[Drugs] are coming across the Southern border and we are going to stop it,” Trump said. “We are gonna try and help the young people, and the old people, and the middle age people, and everybody that got addicted.” “It’s tough. What’s much easier is if we can just stop it with where they don’t start. And we can talk to people and talk to the kids and say ‘don’t do it.’” Politicians may not agree on what’s causing the problem or how to stop it, but drug abuse and addiction have been more common topics in this year’s election than in previous campaigns.
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