In the first six months of 2017, Maine saw 185 drug overdose deaths compared to 180 for the same period in 2018. In 2017 there were 418 drug-induced deaths, an increase from 2016 when my sister, Sarah Cookson, lost her battle with drug addiction and depression. My sister became one of those numbers, Dec. 16, 2016, and one of 376 deaths that year to die from a drug overdose.

Janet Mills has a solid plan to tackle the opioid epidemic and that is why I will vote for her. No other Maine family needs to lose their loved one or suffer and cope with a lifelong trauma as my family has. Mills cares about Maine people struggling with mental health and addiction disorders. She has fought an administration who has repeatedly refused to support citizens of Maine who struggle with addiction and mental health disorders.

Maine doesn’t need more of the same. Maine needs Janet Mills.

Sherry Monteith, Lewiston