AUGUSTA — A law designed to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for their role in Maine’s drug overdose epidemic took effect Tuesday.
The law allows Maine to collect information from opioid makers and charge them a fee to do business in the state, Democratic proponents have said. The money from the fees is intended to be used to help pay for treatment and recovery programs.
Drug overdose deaths in Maine increased to 380 last year after a one-year decline the previous year. Overdose deaths have trended upward in the state for the past decade, with synthetic opioid fentanyl emerging as the deadliest drug.
Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat, said the new law is intended to hold accountable pharmaceutical companies that “flooded the market with drugs, misled the public and bribed some doctors.”
The law includes a licensing fee of $55,000 for opioid makers to do business in Maine, and a product registration fee of $250,000 that applies to the biggest opioid manufacturers.
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