Substance use-related overdoses are a growing public health problem in Maine. Sen. Chloe Maxmin’s L.D. 1862 aims to expand the current Good Samaritan law by shielding everyone at the scene of an overdose from arrest and/or prosecution for all nonviolent crimes, probation and bail violations. This is one step policymakers can take to address the rising rate of drug-related mortality and the broader social and economic impacts of overdose on Maine families and communities.

In 2014, the United States, for the first time in 60 years, began to see a decline in life expectancy, with the largest contributor being midlife mortality secondary to drug overdose. Overdoses affect the number of working-age adults, and, thus, our state’s economic growth and productivity. The increase in opioid overdose deaths also affects children, whose parents today are more likely to die in midlife and whose own health could be at risk when they reach that age, if not sooner.

In Maine, overdose deaths continue to rise annually, increasing 23 percent from 2020 to 2021. One of the largest catalysts is the surge in the use of fentanyl – a fast-acting synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin and is ingested unknowingly after being added to other street drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine. Fentanyl requires larger or repeated doses of naloxone to effectively reverse respiratory depression; however, 90 percent of Mainers who use naloxone to reverse an overdose are not calling 911 for help.

L.D. 1862 acknowledges that substance use disorder is not a moral failing; it is, however, a chronic medical condition that deserves to be represented as one in our Maine legislation.

Jill Vaughn, MSN, APRN-BC
assistant professor, Husson University School of Nursing
Bangor

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