Owing to the New Hampshire primary, we’re hearing a lot about New England as an especially drug-addicted region. A region of particular sadness and wreckage. It’s true. In the summer of 2014, I did a little study of Maine. We put a piece in National Review, and a four-part journal online (I, II, III, and IV).

Let me do a little quoting:

‐Politicians and others speak of an “epidemic,” and that is not an exaggeration. All the New England governors are devoting more and more time to this problem, this crisis. In fact, there was a gubernatorial summit on drugs in Waltham, Mass., earlier this summer.
‐Traveling around Maine, and hearing about it, I think, “This is a textbook example of what Charles Murray is talking about.” Two years ago, the famed political scientist wrote Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010. It’s about economic and moral decline. Of course, there are textbook examples all over the country . . .
‐In February, I was in my home state, Michigan, visiting Hillsdale College — an elite college in a rural area. Someone told me that local stores have trouble getting and keeping help: Too many citizens are hooked on meth.
Two months later, I was in Nebraska, doing a story from a lovely farming community. My host pointed out all the meth houses.
May I ask a question? When exactly did America become a continental ghetto?

Needless to say, there’s a lot more.

New Hampshire is supposed to be inhospitable to Cruz, in part because it’s the least religious state. When I studied Maine, Maine was said to be the least religious state. Maybe they’re, like, tied?

Let me quote from my journal again:

The demographics of Maine are interesting. It has the lowest population density east of the Mississippi. Some 1.3 million people live here, and they have a lot of room. Vast stretches of Maine are essentially uninhabited, I believe. Montana-like.
Maine is the whitest state — about 95 percent are Caucasian.
It is the oldest state — having a median age of almost 43.
It is the least religious state.

I also cited a couple of “fun facts,” maybe for a bit of relief. “Maine is the only state whose name has one syllable. And it is the only state that borders just one other state. (That would be New Hampshire. Otherwise, Maine is surrounded by Canada and ocean.)”

Cruz can talk to both the religious and the secular. So can the other candidates. And I sort of like that the presidential season opens with a diversity of states. That’s as it should be, a national testing-ground.