New tool to reduce overdoses Views from Senate

The opioid epidemic continues to claim the lives of far too many people in our state and throughout the country. In 2022, an estimated 716 Mainers died from drug overdoses, taking an extraordinary toll on families and communities. Last year was the third consecutive year that Maine set a tragic record of fatal overdoses. Annual overdose deaths have more than quadrupled in the past decade.

The 716 overdose deaths in Maine in 2022 were part of the more than 10,110 total overdoses that were reported. The skyrocketing rate of non-fatal overdoses helps to reveal the enormous and growing scale of this crisis that has been exacerbated by the flood of deadly fentanyl. Law enforcement and public health officials have told me that more accurate and timely information on non-fatal overdoses is needed to help combat the opioid epidemic by better identifying trends, targeting drug education efforts, informing response efforts, and allowing responders to focus resources where they are needed most.

As a member of the Senate Health Committee, I have pressed top federal officials to do more to track non-fatal overdoses since they are a leading predictor for future fatal overdoses. In addition to raising this issue at a hearing last March, I included a provision in the 2023 government funding law requiring the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to identify ways to improve the timeliness, accuracy, and accessibility of fatal and non-fatal overdose data.

Recently, ONDCP launched the first-of-its-kind data dashboard for non-fatal opioid overdoses nationwide. With