PORTLAND, Maine — Hundreds from all corners of the state headed to Portland Thursday morning for the fifth annual Opioid Response Summit to discuss the path to ending the opioid epidemic in Maine.
According to data from the Maine Attorney General's Office, more than 10,000 overdoses were reported in the state in 2022, 700 of which were fatal.
"We can keep people alive and give them a chance for recovery," Opioid Response Director Gordon Smith said.
Folks featured at today's event included prevention science expert Carlton Hall and U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee among others.
As one of the preventers of the event, Smith said this year's strategic plan continues past efforts, such as increasing access to life-saving drugs like Narcan, in addition to exploring further options in response to the challenges the pandemic brought forward.
"We're going to have 21 community recovery centers by the end of this year, [into] early next year. We have 18 that are open today."
Folks were also able to break out into one-on-one discussions, touching on topics like youth recovery and prevention, building peer recovery, the state of addiction research from Jackson Labs, and more.
Keynote speakers in recovery, like Arthur Padilla, spoke about their personal ties to the epidemic.
Padilla fell into addiction when he was just eight years old, at a time when recovery options for youth were far and few between. He says today, implementing those conversations in schools is essential.
"I am the consequence of not doing prevention, 'cause then we're telling people 60 years from now, you're still going to be dealing with this," Padilla said.