AUGUSTA – Public safety officials said Wednesday it appears that the number of people who died from drug overdoses in Maine last year exceeded the number killed in motor vehicle accidents – a grim first marking the deadliest year for drugs in the state.
Final figures are not available yet, but officials estimated that fatal drug overdoses in 2005 would reach 178, compared to 168 highway deaths.
Officials said drug-related deaths in Maine have nearly tripled since 2000, although suicides by drug overdose have stayed fairly constant. Accidental overdoses jumped in 2001 and 2002, declined in 2003 but increased in 2004 and 2005, officials said.
As the toll of drug overdoses was detailed, Gov. John Baldacci decried what he described as reductions in federal funding for targeted law enforcement efforts and said he would seek to boost state spending to keep programs afloat.
“While drug deaths in Maine are increasing, federal assistance is falling,” Baldacci said in prepared remarks. “Let me be blunt. The Bush White House has failed to step to the plate for some of the most basic needs of Maine people. The federal government is cutting drug enforcement funds when Maine families need those funds the most.”
Baldacci said the state needs to counteract a 40 percent reduction in federal funding for its drug enforcement task force. The multi-jurisdictional task force includes state prosecutors and drug crime agents.
Baldacci said a 40 percent cut would mean the loss of all six prosecutors and a legal secretary or a drop in the state’s contribution toward paying 27 agents.
“But if George Bush won’t step to the plate, I will,” said Baldacci, who held a news conference Wednesday with Attorney General Steven Rowe and Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara. “I simply will not allow the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to be decimated under my watch.”
Baldacci said a supplemental budget he will release next week will include money that could fully fund the salaries of the prosecutors and their support staff person, along with $640,000 in new funds to bolster support for drug agents.
Campaigning for re-election this year, Baldacci has zeroed in on federal cutbacks and linked them to state budget pressures.
Facing no significant opposition for renomination by the Democratic Party, Baldacci has three Republicans vying for the right to take him on in November – state Sens. Peter Mills of Cornville and Chandler Woodcock of Farmington, and former U.S. Rep. David Emery of St. George.
A potential fourth with longtime experience in law enforcement, former Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood, announced Monday he would not enter the race.
Independent Nancy Oden of Jonesboro and Green Party candidate Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth are also running, as is Robert Bizier of Albion, who switched from an independent to the Democratic Party so he could challenge Baldacci.
According to a preliminary report on Maine medical examiner cases made available by Rowe’s office, the number of accidental drug deaths increased from 19 in 1997 to an estimated high of 140 for 2005.
“Most of this increase is attributable to the misuse of prescription drugs, particularly narcotics and benzodiazepines, often in combination with each other and alcohol,” said the report by Dr. Margaret Greenwald, the state’s chief medical examiner, and Marcella Sorg of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine.
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