NORWAY — Earlier this month Maine’s Director of Opioid Response Gordon Smith reported to Oxford Hills’ addiction recovery community that drug overdose deaths during September and October were 108, down from the same two-month periods in 2021 and 2022.

Smith’s announcement, shared during Western Maine Addiction Recovery Initiative’s monthly board meeting, was received with guarded optimism.

“It’s encouraging,” Smith said. “But it still means we will probably see 600 deaths in Maine this year. That is 6% of people overdosing. It’s way better than 723,” the total number of reported overdose deaths last year.

He added that there is not yet enough data to say whether lowering numbers are attributable to more people getting into treatment, increased access to and education about harm reduction, or combinations of those with other factors.

“I do think more people are getting into treatment,” Smith said. “We can track people in treatment. What we don’t know is how many are seeking treatment and unable to get it or are on wait lists. Or how many are actively using but aren’t ready for recovery.”

Recently, new outpatient treatment programs have opened in Rumford, Saco and Manchester.

In Oxford county, the statewide OPTIONS program now has a second substance use treatment liaison. Susan Friend, a certified mental health rehabilitation technician, has joined Outreach Clinician Glen Gordon, who was the county’s first recovery advocate with the Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach Naloxone and Safety program that launched in 2021.

Each county in Maine has at least one OPTIONS liaison, who takes referrals from law enforcement and other agencies and connects them with resources for treatment, housing, employment and other services.

The HILLS Recovery Center in Norway, which opened about a year ago, is seeing similar trends to other agencies and programs. To date, peer support specialists there have provided 94 referrals for various treatment options, housing and other assistance programs over the last several months.

A basic review of overdose data collected by Gov. Janet Mills’ SUD response team shows glimmers of improvement over the last three years.

In 2021, monthly fatal drug overdoses exceeded 60 deaths twice, in October and November. In 2022 60 or more people died of overdoses in six of the first 10 months, and in eight months of the total year.

Between January and October of this year, fatal overdoses exceeded 60 once, in April. In March and August there were 41 overdose deaths, the lowest reported in any month since February 2021.

Total overdoses year-to-date were 8,259, slighter higher than in 2021 but down by 583 compared to last year.

Reported overdoses in Oxford county have increased each year since 2019, from 9 that year to 36 in 2022. Total deaths through the first 10 months of 2023 is 18, with just one reported in October.

Last year there were two months – May and August – where more than 1,000 people were reported to have overdosed. In 2021 total overdoses exceeded 1,000 just one, during the month of September.

That is a threshold that has yet to be crossed during the first 10 months of this year.

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