After months of delay, the Maine Office of Attorney General and the Office of Behavioral Health finally released an overview of statistics regarding suspected and confirmed fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses since January 2021. They reported 13,496 Mainers had experienced a fatal or reversed overdose since the beginning of last year. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also reported 893 Mainers died from a fatal overdose during that period.
However, the approximate 13,500 reported overdoses do not reflect the actual number in Maine. The State only released overdose numbers from medical events that were officially reported through various sources. For example, nonfatal reporting included visits to hospital emergency departments, EMS calls that resulted in a non-transport to an emergency department, and on-scene law enforcement reversals with naloxone that did not include an EMS interaction.
As noted, “there are also an unknown number of private overdose reversals that were not reported, and an unknown number of the community-reported reversals that may have overlapped with emergency response by EMS or law enforcement.”
Despite Maine’s Substance Use Disorder Epidemic taking center stage over the past several years, State officials said they were unable to compile and release the reporting due to pandemic-related delays in toxicology and substance testing. Maine’s drug epidemic is growing as the proportion of fatalities from January to May of 2022 is 9.0% higher than the first five months of 2021. The report also noted that 9.0% of the individuals were identified as having a military background.
Fentanyl continues to be the leading cause of death as it “acts more quickly than other opioids and there is less time for bystanders to find an overdose victim alive and respond by administering naloxone and calling 911.” Also, the use of stimulant substances is on the rise in Maine with methamphetamine being cited as one of the causes of death in 35% of the fatal overdoses and cocaine for 30% of the cases.
The spike in drug related deaths in Maine comes on the heels of our Washington DC elected officials deliberately promoting an open southern border policy. Nationwide, Americans are dying of drug overdose deaths in record numbers from trafficked non-pharmaceutical fentanyl from criminal drug cartels. As of today, top Maine state officials have not called on the Biden Administration to enforce our border laws and redouble our efforts to stop the influx of narcotics into our country. Consequently, Mainers continue to die daily from the drug epidemic.