Category Archives: Heroin

These three things could ease the opiate epidemic right now

As was reported by the Bangor Daily News, a week ago the Maine Opiate Collaborative unveiled its final report on the recommendations it was making to fight the opiate crisis in Maine.  The Maine Opiate Collaborative consists of three task forces, law enforcement, treatment, and prevention, that were convened by U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty after […]

Maine medical marijuana industry seeking to cash in on the heroin epidemic

BDN File

It has been heartening to see all of the efforts and initiatives start up across Maine to address the heroin crisis.  Police departments and sheriff’s departments are looking to start up referral and diversion programs to get people suffering into treatment.  Public health coalitions are setting up forums to put together plans to implement in […]

Maine passes addiction bill; what it means and what it doesn’t mean

In an inspiring display of unity, the Maine House and Senate both unanimously passed the $3.7 million addiction bill which was then quickly signed by Governor Paul Lepage. Within a couple of short hours, Maine had adopted a comprehensive, bi-partisan bill to address the increasingly dire addiction epidemic in Maine. One of the questions that remained […]

Maine’s bipartisan addiction bill is a good first step

As a Certified Prevention Specialist with a decade of experience in the field, I support the bi-partisan addiction bill LR 2599. I support this act because as a seasoned prevention professional, I’ve seen this story before. It is a story that has been told all too often. Just a few short years ago the story […]

Supporting families to prevent substance abuse

Despite what the lack of snow and downright balmy temperatures would tell us, Christmas is indeed coming up this week.  My house is abuzz with excitement amongst my family including my three children.  A couple of weeks ago, as is tradition, we picked out the tree and put up the ornaments.  With a daughter approaching […]

How marijuana legalization could sink new plan to tackle Maine’s drug abuse crisis

Republican and Democrat leaders today unveiled their $4.8 Million plan to address the substance abuse epidemic facing the state of Maine.  It is a comprehensive plan that provides additional resources and supports for law enforcement, treatment, prevention, and recovery services.  It includes funding for the 10 new Maine DEA Agents Governor LePage has been requesting […]

Gov. Christie has the right equation to address addiction crisis

By now, you probably have seen the now viral video of New Jersey Governor and GOP Presidential candidate Chris Christie talking about the drug abuse crisis.  If you haven’t watched it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it now before reading the rest of this article: For me, what is […]

How a recovery-oriented approach to substance abuse means economic development for Maine

Last week I posted this article talking about how moving to a recovery-oriented approach to substance abuse can also be a form of economic development.  In particular, I posit that employers implementing hiring programs for people in recovery would be one such strategy.  Lo and behold, there are indeed companies out there starting to do […]

Preventing youth marijuana and alcohol use is a key to heroin epidemic

Tuesday, I was fortunate to have been invited by my friends at the Bangor Public Health Substance Abuse Task Force to a meeting they organized with Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli.  This followed the drug strategy round table featuring Mr. Botticelli and called together by Senator Angus King.  While the round […]

Maine’s Heroin Crisis: Solution Not as Simple as Enforcement vs. Treatment

The past week has seen some much-needed wall to wall coverage of the heroin crisis across most major Maine media outlets.  The most recent headlines have been around the recent rash of overdoses over the course of a 24 hours period in Portland.  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen that story.  There have been previous clusters of […]