© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

Opioid Addiction Crisis the Subject of a Rural Maine Roundtable Hosted By Sen. Angus King

Sen. Angus King listens to family members of those affected by addiction at Paris Town Hall opioid roundtable.
Office of U.S. Sen. Angus King

Family members of those struggling with addiction met with Sen. Angus King at the Paris Town Hall Monday afternoon to discuss some of the challenges they're facing in rural Maine.

This was the fourth roundtable convened by King, who calls the opioid crisis "the most serious disaster to strike Maine" in his adult life. According to the Maine Attorney General, 272 people died of overdoses in Maine last year. That's a 31 percent increase from 2014.

"I've never seen anything like it and it's all over the state," King says. "It's Portland and rural areas and northern Maine, Washington County, and it's still growing."

King says he wants to hear from people in recovery, as well as doctors, law enforcement and others to try to figure out what policies and programs can best support families battling addiction. One of the messages he heard was how difficult it is for people in Oxford County to access medicated assisted treatment. Dr. Lisa Miller is a family physician in Norway.

"There's a severe lack of medication assisted treatment in this community," says Miller. "We have no methadone clinics nearby. We have two Suboxone providers, I think, within 30 minutes but they're filled to the brim. They're not taking new patients and it's just a real struggle for people to get in for any medication assisted treatment."

Michelle Roberts of Greenwood told King she personally knows 38 people who are struggling with addiction. She says she lost one family member to an overdose and is currently being treated herself with Suboxone for an addiction to pain medication that was prescribed for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Roberts says in addition to the shortage of Suboxone providers, she faced other hurdles when she was initially referred to a treatment provider in Farmington, about 30 miles from where she lives.

"I had no transportation to get there," Roberts says. "I didn't have the money, the gas, anything like that to get there. And I ended up finding a doctor that was closer. And I was extremely lucky."

"It's not like this was easy," said King.

"Not at all. It took a very long time," says Roberts.

Several parents at the roundtable described the difficulty of caring for loved ones with active addiction. Patricia Plummer of Paris lost her niece to a heroin overdose in September. That same night she says her own son told her he was also addicted to heroin.

"He's overdosed three times," says Plummer. "I almost lost him again last Sunday night. A buddy, friend, pal left him anonymously at the hospital."

"That's not much of a friend," says King.

"He had to have two shots of Narcan," says Plummer.

"And that saved him?" asks King.

"It did," replies Plummer. "For the third time."

Plummer and others say they think there's a need for more education of high school kids about the dangers of heroin and other opiates and more emphasis on prevention. Still other parents say there's a need for more support for families. One woman, who asked to remain anonymous because her 25-year-old son is still actively using, says being the parent of someone with addiction is nothing that you plan for. She says she's had to learn coping mechanisms herself.

"All of a sudden you are checking to see if he was online that day, to see if he's still alive, if he's still breathing," says a woman who asked to remain anonymous. "It turns everything around."

Sen. King says he's made tackling the opioid epidemic one of his top priorities in the Senate. He co-sponsored the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act that was passed by the Senate last month that would provide a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to help expand prevention, treatment and recovery. King says it's a good first step, but he says more needs to be done, including finding additional funding to support it.