Prevention, Policy, Politics

Scott has worked in the field of addiction prevention for over 15 years. He began his career as a program coordinator and evaluator for Day One, coordinating the youth mentoring program Natural Helpers along with staffing the Maine Gambling Addiction Network. He moved on to work for Healthy Androscoggin, where he coordinated the Drug-Free Communities grant covering all of Androscoggin County, Maine. Currently, he is the Associate Executive Director of AdCare Educational Institute of Maine, Inc. home to SAMHSA’s New England Prevention Technology Transfer Center, providing training and technical assistance to prevention professionals in the New England States.

Scott has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Political Management, from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service. The intersection of policy and prevention is a particular passion for Scott. As an advocate, Scott is a fierce champion for ensuring policies related to substances - federal, state, and local - are well-grounded in data and evidence, and contain strong public health measures to protect youth and communities, from the intended and unintended consequences from the commercial alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis industries. Since 2013, Scott has been speaking on issues of cannabis, policy, and prevention in Maine and New England and across the country.

Scott’s experience isn’t limited to cannabis prevention and policy, he also has experience in the politics of cannabis. Scott was the campaign manager for Mainers Protecting our Youth and Communities, the No On 1 campaign that opposed the 2016 cannabis legalization referendum in Maine. Scott build a strong coalition of advocates from multiple sectors including healthcare, behavioral health, public health, municipal, law enforcement, faith based, and business. While ultimately the campaign very narrowly lost, the campaign was successful in bringing to the fore the critical issues of protecting the health and communities from the potential negative fallout from a commercial cannabis industry. Subsequently, Scott was instrumental in seeing strong public health measures adopted into Maine’s new legalization law, including strong local-control options for municipalities, eliminating cannabis social clubs, and strengthened language to prevent cannabis advertising that appeals to youth.

Prevention.