Health care
The opioid epidemic is putting immense pressure on Maine’s child welfare and education systems
In half of all cases in Maine in which a child is removed from the home, an Office of Child and Family Services investigation identified the parent or caregiver's substance use a risk factor.
-
Recovery advocates want to see a move toward trauma-informed recovery and state officials and lawmakers are looking at how the child welfare system is uniquely positioned to help.
-
Nikole Powell’s father developed an opioid use disorder after a work injury, a dependence that traumatized his family and eventually led to his incarceration and death. His daughter is trying to break the cycle.
-
Maine lawmakers and health officials realized easy access to prescription opioids was creating dependency issues and clamped down, but did not anticipate how well the illegal drug market would fill the void.
-
Twenty years after Purdue Pharma introduced its pain medication, OxyContin, Maine lawmakers passed a bill that significantly stemmed the flow of pain pills into the state. A Sun Journal investigation found the new restrictions may have been too little, too late: A generation of Mainers were already grappling with substance use disorder and a growing illicit drug trade was ready to meet the demand.
-
Like many patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, Todd Papianou, a high school teacher from Rumford, knows the thin line between life-saving and life-destroying medication.
Nikole's story
Data
-
-
Health care
Data Sheet: Education costs
-
Health care
Methodology: Where the child welfare and education data came from
-
Health care
Data Sheet: Fatal drug overdoses
-
Health care
Data Sheet: Prescription distribution
-
Health care
Data Sheet: Confirmed drug deaths
-
Health care
Data Sheet: Fatal and nonfatal overdoses 2017-2021
-
Health care
Methodology: Where the drug data came from
About this Project
Sun Journal staff writer Emily Bader has spent the past six months investigating the contributing causes of Maine’s ongoing opioid epidemic and its impact on families and children while also seeking solutions from state officials, lawmakers, people in recovery and others.
This exhaustive analysis couples on-the-ground reporting with data that looks at how prescription opioids streamed into the state over the past 15 years, the rising death toll from opioids as changes to the law and a booming drug trade shifted the crisis away from pharmaceuticals to illicit and increasingly lethal drugs, and the growing pressure on schools and the child welfare system as the state grapples with how to handle this multi-generational crisis.
The project was produced in partnership with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism through its 2021 Data Fellowship program.