Dear Editor:

Joe Gelarden, in his article "Good Cops Meet a Bad Dude,” labels John Kaula, a 44-year-old man arrested in Brunswick for methamphetamine possession, as a "bad dude."

In the article, we learn nothing about what may have led Mr. Kaula to the moment described - nothing of a possible history of trauma, mental illness, or addiction, a disease that drives behaviors abhorrent even to those who carry them out. Yet he is proclaimed to be a “bad dude.”

My daughter, Elisif, died of an overdose in 2014. She was 24 years old with a history rife in addiction-driven criminal behaviors. At the time of her death, she was in residence at a healing community. As is the nature of addiction (or substance use disorder, or SUD), she relapsed, leading her to send a money order to a friend and fellow sufferer of SUD, Sean Harrington, who in turn mailed her heroin. Elisif used and died.

Arrested and facing murder charges, Sean was labeled by local media as a "bad dude.”

Sean was not a bad dude; he was in pain and caught up in addiction. Sean and Elisif had come to know each other over their love of art. The friendship was authentic; the drugs got in the way. As Sean wrote me from jail, "I hated being an addict, but I couldn't help myself."

Because our family did not cooperate with the prosecution, Sean’s charges were eventually dropped. Today, he is in full recovery. Our recognizing his behaviors as disease-driven rather than a product of weak or immoral character has made all the difference in his redemption.

For all we know, John Kaula is no different from Sean, or my daughter, or so many in Maine who scurry in the margins of society, shamed and blamed and driven by disease and desperation to behaviors leaving them thought of as no more than “bad dudes.” I do not know John Kaula’s full story, but I know labeling him a “bad dude” based on superficial understanding of his circumstances perpetuates stigmatization of those affected by substances.

This does not help.