AUGUSTA — The Maine Office of the Attorney General says the state set a new record for overdose deaths in 2016 with 378. The office of Janet Mills says the number of overdose deaths climbed from 272 in 2015. That was a record at the time and a 31 percent increase from 2014. The office […]
addiction
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Health Access Foundation awards $800,000 for addiction care
AUGUSTA — The Maine Health Access Foundation is awarding up to $800,000 in grants in an attempt to increase access to addiction care for underserved people. The foundation says the main focus of the grants will be to increase medication-assisted therapies. It says it wants to link more people to treatment with Suboxone in conjunction […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage announces plan to cut addiction care waitlists
Gov. Paul LePage’s administration is poised to make what sounds like a major announcement this morning in regards to an expansion of substance abuse treatment opportunities in Maine. Mary Mayhew, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christopher Pezzullo will brief reporters later this morning on a plan […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine DHHS to create new slots for addiction treatment
AUGUSTA (AP) — The state Department of Health and Human Services has announced it will expand access to medication-assisted addiction treatment by creating 359 new slots with a program scheduled to start next month. The Portland Press Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2hP4Xu6 ) the department said Monday its study showed that about 300 to 450 people in […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine’s push to boost peer recovery centers draws concern
AUGUSTA — Supervisors of state recovery centers say they’re worried about the timing and direction of Maine’s plan to establish peer-run recovery centers statewide. The idea is for people who have faced challenges like substance abuse or mental illness to receive training to provide peer support for others. Peer-run centers, seen as a cost-efficient part […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine launches pilot program to help addicted parents
AUGUSTA — Maine is launching a pilot program to help keep together families dealing with substance abuse. The state Department of Health and Human Services says more than 60 percent of children who come into protective custody do so because of parental substance as a risk factor. DHHS Commissioner said the drug epidemic is destroying […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage rejects ‘feel-good’ statement on opioid pledge
AUGUSTA — Maine Gov. Paul LePage is dismissing a pledge by governors to combat the opioid crisis as a “feel-good measure.” The governors of 47 states and territories signed on to the Compact to Fight Opioid Addiction committing to fight the epidemic, which is fueled by the overprescribing of prescription pain relievers. Peter Steele, Lepage’s […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage says he wants to shut down methadone clinics
Gov. Paul LePage said Tuesday morning he would like to close Maine’s methadone clinics. “I’ve been trying to close down methadone clinics since I’ve been governor,” said LePage during his weekly radio appearance on WVOM. “When it comes to methadone, every expert I’ve talked to says there’s no clinical aspect to it. … It’s no […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Advocates say new DHHS draft rules could close Maine drug treatment clinics
AUGUSTA — Proposed changes to state rules for how methadone and Suboxone clinics serve Medicaid recipients threaten to drive some of those clinics out of business in the midst of an unprecedented addiction crisis in Maine, advocates for medication-assisted treatment testified Monday. The draft rules, proposed recently by the Maine Department of Health and Human […]
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What is the ‘typical’ addict like?
I recently spoke to someone about addiction, to which his immediate response was, “Oh, you don’t want to know what I think about that stuff. I think we should just kill all the drug addicts.” An interesting sentiment that’s not too far from where public opinion has nested for decades — and why might that […]