Sorg quoted in Press Herald article on Bath-Brunswick addiction program
Marcella Sorg, a research professor of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, spoke with the Portland Press Herald for an article about the Addiction Resource Center (ARC) in Brunswick. The center’s open access to drug treatment — those suffering from addiction can typically get into the ARC within two to three days, even for the uninsured who can’t pay out-of-pocket — is almost unheard of in Maine, according to the report. The ARC system that allows quick and easy access into treatment is being touted as a potential key to alleviating Maine’s heroin crisis, the article states. There were zero or very few drug overdose deaths in the Bath-Brunswick region in 2015, at the same time that overdoses were soaring through the rest of the state, the Press Herald reported. Sorg, who compiles drug overdose reports for Maine, said due to patient privacy concerns, officials cannot release a number to the public if there were fewer than five deaths in a city or town. “They are really close to zero,” Sorg said of the Bath-Brunswick region.