Navigating Addiction
I believe that the stories we tell about our past and present have the power to shape the future. Too often, well-intentioned policymakers focus exclusively on facts and figures to craft and promote solutions to our most pressing problems, but they seem to forget that at the core of the problems we face and the policies they craft to address those problems are individuals and families with powerful stories that need to be told.
This month, I attended New Hampshire Theatre Project’s Elephant in the Room discussion on families navigating addiction. The program featured A Wider Circle, a play reading by playwright and civics teacher, Mary-Ellen Hedrick, and focused on the effects of heroin addiction on both individuals and their families.
Following the reading, the audience gathered for an honest conversation about substance misuse, how it has impacted our communities, the local resources available, and the reality that addiction is a family disease. Parents, neighbors, advocates, and community members reflected not just on statistics, but on their personal experiences. I am grateful for spaces like this that help us confront this “elephant” in a meaningful way, and these stories inform the leadership I try to embody when it comes to crafting policies to help people and families heal.
Local communities are doing the work: recovery centers are stretched thin, families are stepping up to support loved one, and educators and parents are on the front lines. New Hampshire communities need partners in Washington who understand that addiction impacts everyone, and the opioid epidemic is not just a local crisis— it is an emergency that requires federal leadership.
That means:
Funding prevention, treatment, and recovery services
Protecting and strengthening Medicaid, which is a major payer of substance use treatment in New Hampshire
Ensuring federal dollars reach community-based providers
Expanding mental health infrastructure
It also means confronting the role of corporate consolidation in healthcare, which helped fuel this crisis. Bipartisan legislation to Break Up Big Medicine, which addresses pharmaceutical pricing power and anti-competitive practices, are essential. Tackling monopoly power lowers costs, increases transparency, and allow resources to be reinvested into patient care and recovery services.
Corporate consolidation to maximize profits in the healthcare system erodes the foundation of recovery: community. Recovery thrives in community.
What I witnessed that evening was a community ready to confront hard truths, and committed to caring for one another. Now it’s on us to ensure that is matched by policy, and that families navigating addiction are met with support and resources both locally and from their federal leaders.
New Hampshire deserves leadership that has the strength, wisdom, and compassion to carry these stories with them and take action that is informed not only by the sobering facts and figures about opioid addiction, but also by the harrowing and inspiring stories of families struggling together to heal.