While overdoses plummeted in Maine’s largest city last month, Bangor saw only slightly fewer than its 2023 average.
January was the first month in more than two and a half years in which Portland didn’t see a single fatal overdose, according to police there. The city’s nonfatal overdoses last month were also 21 percent lower than the city witnessed in January 2023.
Bangor police reported one fatal overdose and 20 nonfatal overdoses last month, which is slightly better than the city’s 2023 monthly average of 1.5 and 21.83 fatal and nonfatal overdoses, respectively.
November 2023 was the last time Bangor saw a month with no overdose deaths.
Last month’s overdose data is also an improvement from January 2023, in which Bangor saw two overdose deaths and 24 nonfatal overdoses, according to Bangor police.
Those numbers, however, don’t include overdoses in which a friend or bystander administers naloxone, a nasal spray that reverses a drug overdose, and the person is taken to a hospital without police being called.
While not as drastic as Portland, Bangor’s slight overdose decrease continues a trend of declining nonfatal and fatal overdoses both locally and statewide that has those who fight to decrease substance use cautiously optimistic. It’s also a rare sign of hope in an opioid crisis that has raged across Maine for years and appeared to only get worse due to increasing amounts of fentanyl contaminating the opioid supply.
There are likely multiple factors contributing to the downward trend in overdoses, such as statewide efforts to increase access to naloxone and investment in new and expanded treatment and recovery facilities, according to Gordon Smith, Maine’s governor-appointed director of opioid response.
Statewide, there were 607 fatal overdoses in 2023, a marked decrease from the 723 drug deaths Maine saw in 2022, according to the latest monthly overdose report, issued by the University of Maine and Maine attorney general’s office.