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Erik Steele is a family physician who has cared for Maine people for more than 30 years. He chairs the 1000 Lives Campaign for Maine, which is a provider-led, statewide initiative trying to reduce deaths of Mainers from opioid-related illnesses. Noah Nesin is a family doctor who resides in Glenburn, works in recovery services and serves as a senior medical adviser for a Maine-based Accountable Care Organization.
Maine people take pride in being there for our neighbors. The opiate crisis has put those skills to the test, and Maine communities have shown what it means to be kind, compassionate, and innovative to admit to this unexpected and very complex health challenge.
As partners in Maine’s opioid response over the past eight years, we were dismayed by Bobby Charles’ Aug. 14 opinion column on addiction. Having been silent for eight years of the LePage administration’s assault on persons with substance use disorders, Charles now sharply criticizes the Mills administration for its dramatically improved prevention, treatment and recovery support resources across the state.
Charles’ blame of Hannah Pingree for New Hampshire’s drug death statistics looking better than Maine’s seems based on pure politics, not science. The difference is accounted for by multiple factors, including differences in how drug death data is collected and reported by states, Maine’s higher rate of opioid prescribing prior to the start of the opioid death epidemic, its more rural status, and many other factors including the LePage administration’s lack of any real effort to effectively treat addiction.
Among those reasons is most certainly not lack of effort on the part of Pingree and the Mills administration. The data of what has been accomplished under Gov. Janet Mills, Hannah Pingree, and Gordon Smith, who directs the governor’s opioid response, speaks for itself:
Overdose deaths continue to decline in the state for the fourth straight year. There has been a nearly 60% reduction since the height of the pandemic in 2022.
Nearly 40,000 Mainers are receiving treatment for substance use disorders through MaineCare expansion, the result of Mills’ executive order 1 to expand Medicaid coverage, signed her first day in office after Gov. Paul LePage had refused to implement the law passed by public initiative.
The Mills administration has regularly reported on Maine’s progress.
Nineteen recovery community centers are now available to support individuals in recent and long-term recovery.
Over 600 residential treatment beds are available with another 75 beds under construction. Four thousand individuals have been trained as recovery coaches, including some new youth recovery coaches.
Thirty-two OPTIONS behavioral health liaisons assisted by seven recovery coaches are available on the ground and in our communities every day to reach out to individuals who overdose and survive (96% of overdoses are not fatal) and refer them for treatment and other resources.
Nearly 100 Recovery Friendly Workplaces (RFW) have been designated under the state’s new RFW initiative, representing over 25,000 employees, according to the Mills administration.
Over 870,000 doses of naloxone have been distributed through the Maine Naloxone Distribution Initiative, saving thousands of lives.
In short, Maine’s opioid response strategic plan, developed with input from persons in recovery, people who use drugs, public safety officials, and community leaders, is working.
Charles notes that a governor should be getting out into our communities and hearing firsthand from people on the frontline. This type of outreach has occurred continuously for the past eight years, culminating each year with the Governor’s Opioid Response Summit. There are monthly educational webinars, offered to all at no cost. Regular visits also occur with each of the recovery community centers and treatment facilities.
Charles is right to support law enforcement efforts to beat back the tide of opioids that has washed over Maine. But while law enforcement has a critical role in rolling back the opioid crisis, it is ultimately treatment that works best to reduce demand for illegal drugs.
Over the past eight years, Maine has made tremendous progress in prevention, expanding access to treatment in all settings, reducing overdose deaths, increasing recovery housing, and providing employment opportunities for people in recovery. There is still much to do, but we believe that if we continue working together, and with Hannah Pingree’s leadership as governor, we can meet the remaining challenges of the opioid crisis.
Bobby Charles’ proposal to return to the failed policies and terrible stigma of the past will have disastrous consequences. Let’s not make that mistake again.