Brock Peters, 29, credits an arrest at the height of his opioid addiction with saving his life. After detoxing at the jail, he became part of a pilot program to treat opioid addiction in a different way.
Brock Peters credits an arrest at the height of his opioid addiction with with saving his life; after detoxing in the Somerset County jail, he became part of a pilot program to treat opioid addiction in a different way.
Brock Peters, 29, credits an arrest at the height of his opioid addiction with saving his life. After detoxing at the jail, he became part of a pilot program to treat opioid addiction in a different way.
Maine has expanded substance use disorder services and launched new programs during the pandemic.
Gordon Smith, Maine’s opioid response director, said in an interview Thursday that the widespread availability of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversing drug – is saving thousands of lives. The state delivered about 800 doses of naloxone statewide in July 2019, while in recent months the monthly distribution typically has topped 5,000. Naloxone can be easily found in drugstores and public safety departments, and syringe exchange sites and hospitals also have supplies on hand.
Gordon Smith, the state’s director of opioid response.
Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Although drug overdose deaths increased by 33 percent in Maine in 2020, from 380 in 2019 to 504 last year, Smith said the wave of overdose deaths would have been worse if not for the accessibility of naloxone.