AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine lawmakers hope new laws expanding access to the opioid reversal drug naloxone will stem overdose deaths. But advocacy groups say Maine hasn’t done enough prevention and treatment in the midst of a crisis. Drug overdose deaths in the state rose to 376 last year, from 208 in 2014. Republican Gov. Paul […]
opioids
Posted inNation / World
Opioid hospitalization increasing, Maine among top 10 states
Users of opioid painkillers often grapple with risking addiction or living with pain The coast-to-coast opioid epidemic is swamping hospitals, with government data published Tuesday showing 1.27 million emergency room visits or inpatient stays for opioid-related issues in a single year. The 2014 numbers, the latest available for every state and the District of Columbia, […]
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Janet Mills joins other attorneys general to probe cause of opioid crisis
AUGUSTA — Maine’s attorney general is joining most of her counterparts in other states to probe the sales and marketing efforts of opioid manufacturers. “We need to get the genie back in the pill bottle,” Attorney General Janet Mills said. “Our society is awash in pills and it is killing us.” More than half of […]
Posted inMaine
Lawmakers oppose plan to create safe centers for drug addicts
AUGUSTA — A seemingly radical idea to create a couple of places where drug-addicted Mainers could go to shoot up in safety drew passionate debate from lawmakers who ultimately turned down the idea. Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, said the notion of creating a safe, secure place for addicts to take prohibited drugs legally might seem […]
Posted inNation / World
Drug crisis pushing up death rates for almost all groups of Americans
The opioid epidemic that has ravaged life expectancy among economically stressed white Americans is taking a rising toll among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, driving up the overall rate of premature death among Americans in the prime of their lives. Since the beginning of this decade, death rates have risen among people between the ages […]
Posted inMaine
Maine panel recommends bill to help chronic pain patients
AUGUSTA (AP) — A legislative committee is supporting a bill to give Maine doctors flexibility in prescribing opioid medication to patients living with chronic and severe pain. Some patients have said they are living in agony on smaller doses of painkillers thanks to a cap on daily opioid doses that lawmakers enacted last year. The […]
Posted inMaine
Kellyanne Conway, Paul LePage, Tom Price discuss opioid epidemic
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, left, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, center, and Kellyanne Conway, an advisor to President Trump, conduct a meeting to discuss the state’s efforts to fight the opioid epidemic Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at the State House in Augusta. The meeting includes relatives of those struggling with addiction […]
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Paul LePage: It’s unfair Narcan is free but allergy pens aren’t
AUGUSTA — Maine’s Republican governor says people on opiates who get free shots of Narcan have an advantage over people with allergies who have to pay for their own medication. Gov. Paul LePage said during a Tuesday radio call-in that he got a letter from a dad whose family members have to carry allergy pens […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine medical examiner wants more money to handle OD deaths
AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine is dealing with so many drug overdose deaths that the state medical examiner is asking for more money to handle the workload. The epidemic of heroin, fentanyl and other opioids is behind a record number of overdose deaths — 378 last year in Maine. The attorney general’s office, which oversees the […]
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U.S. Senate approves Sen. Susan Collins’ provisions to opioid act
PORTLAND — The U.S. Senate has signed off on provisions Sen. Susan Collins authored into a federal opioid addiction act that are designed to protect pregnant mothers and children. The Senate overwhelmingly approved the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act on Wednesday. Collins, a Maine Republican, co-sponsored the legislation. One of Collins’ provisions is called the […]