opioids

A Maine doctor who specializes in substance use treatment was arrested in Kennebunk Wednesday for allegedly illegal distribution of opioids and other controlled substances.

Maine playwright Michael Gorman lost his brother, a commercial fisherman, to a heroin overdose in 1998. To help process that loss, Gorman set out to write a trilogy of plays that explore the ruinous effects that opiate addiction has had on the fishing community. From that work other projects evolved including a blues opera, "The Ahab Inside Me," that runs this weekend at the Colonial Theater in Augusta.

It's unclear how much Maine communities will receive from the settlement, let alone how money will be allocated to individual tribes.

Maine's Attorney General says the state has reached an agreement with municipalities, counties, and school districts on how to disburse funds from a national settlement with opioid distributors and manufacturers. It could funnel up to $130 million into the state over the next 18 years to help respond to the opioid crisis.

The Church of Safe Injection, a nonprofit that provides harm reduction supplies and overdose reversal training for people who use drugs, was cleared by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week to operate syringe service programs in Westbrook, Lewiston, Rumford, Dixfield and Bethel.

The number of babies in Maine who are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome — a condition they may experience if exposed to opioids or other substances in the womb — has declined in recent years, according to state CDC epidemiologist Erika Lichter.

Some harm reduction organizations in Maine have been forced to limit distribution of the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone amid a nationwide shortage.

Maine is expected to receive about $20 million as part of a multi-billion dollar resolution of a lawsuit brought by several states against Purdue Pharma.

More than two dozen Maine school districts have joined national lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. According to court filings and a database from the media outlet Education Week, districts across the country are seeking compensation from companies such as Purdue Pharma.