Statistics compiled by Sorg cited in Kennebec Journal article on Maine’s opioid crisis

The Kennebec Journal reported on the Maine Municipal Association’s annual convention in Augusta. During one session, front-line responders spoke about what they see daily related to the state’s opioid crisis and what they hope can be done. In 2016, 376 drug-induced deaths were reported statewide, according to the Expanded Maine Drug Death Report for 2016, funded by the Office of the Maine Attorney General and compiled by Marcella Sorg, an anthropologist and research professor with the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine. That number is a 38 percent increase over the deaths reported in 2015. Of the deaths in 2016, 88 percent were accidental overdoses, the article states.