Boothbay, MAINE – To mark International Overdose Awareness Day, Governor Janet Mills today joined leaders, advocates, and individuals touched by substance use order at a remembrance and awareness ceremony hosted by the 716 Candles Project in Boothbay. The number “716” refers to the number of suspected or confirmed deaths attributed to drug overdose last year in Maine. In her remarks, the Governor pledged that her Administration “will continue to do all we can to save lives because we know that recovery from substance use disorder is possible.”
“Today, on International Overdose Awareness Day, we light candles to chase away the dark of this deadly epidemic. We remember the people we lost, and we pray they rest in peace. We comfort the friends and family hoping to be reunited with their loved one someday. And we promise here and now to continue our work to prevent overdoses from claiming the life of any other person in the state of Maine,” the Governor said.
Under Governor Mills’ leadership, the State has taken significant actions to address the opioid epidemic including:
- Providing health insurance coverage through MaineCare expansion to over 100,000 Mainers, with over 25,000 individuals receiving treatment for substance use;
- Increasing the purchase and distribution of naloxone in Maine in response to increased numbers of overdoses. Since 2019, the Mills Administration has distributed more than 324,755 doses of naloxone, which has been used to reverse over 7,998 overdoses that may have otherwise been fatal;
- Providing $6 million to create 140 new residential treatment beds for substance use disorder (SUD) across the state, an increase of nearly 40 percent;
- Substantially increasing rates for providers of residential SUD treatment, including an increase implemented in 2020/2021 of 77 percent for medically supervised withdrawal services;
- Supporting health providers in offering medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), with 1,035 providers who wrote at least one prescription for an MOUD medication in 2022, an increase of 289, or 39 percent, since 2019. In 2023, 676 prescribers wrote at least one prescription for an MOUD medication, compared to 517 by mid-2022, a 31 percent increase.
- Doubling liaisons in the OPTIONS program, which has placed response teams in each Maine county to engage with individuals to promote drug prevention and harm reduction strategies, connect people to recovery and treatment, and distribute naloxone;
- Seizing 4.7 pounds of fentanyl by Maine Drug Enforcement agents from January to June of this year, not counting seizures led by local law enforcement agencies, such as 30 pounds of fentanyl seized in Auburn after it was shipped to a local restaurant.
- Vastly expanding team-based treatment of opioid use disorder for eligible MaineCare members and uninsured individuals through Opioid Health Homes, from 19 service locations serving 781 individuals a month at the beginning of 2019, to 113 locations serving 4,656 individuals a month in May 2023. The number of members served has increased over 1,400 a month in just the past year as MaineCare adapted its model in August 2022 to also serve individuals receiving methadone and those at a medication-only level of care;
- In 2022, expanding Maine’s “Good Samaritan” law, first signed by Governor Mills in 2019, which encourages individuals to call for life-saving assistance when someone at their location is experiencing an overdose;
- Recruiting and training of over 1,000 recovery coaches;
- Providing funding for medically monitored withdrawal beds through OBH to support room and board and other costs not covered by MaineCare; and
- Providing $500,000 in funding to five coalitions in the highest need areas of the State to create local overdose prevention and response plans with the goal of reducing stigma, increasing access to naloxone and other evidence based prevention and harm reduction strategies, and building communities that support those in recovery.
In July, the Mills Administration released a 2023-2025 Strategic Action Plan for Opioid Response (PDF).