After several months’ planning, the Lincoln County Recovery Collaborative will sign a memorandum of understanding, joining the efforts of Lincoln County’s law enforcement agencies and addiction resource agencies on Friday, July 15, at noon, at Skidompha Library in Damariscotta.

No town in Maine has been spared from the recent heroin and opiate epidemic. Deaths from overdoses from both prescription painkillers and heroin have quadrupled from 1999 to 2013. The rate of drug-addicted infants has risen nearly five times, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In Lincoln County in 2014, an average of 69.2 narcotic pills were prescribed per person. With prescriptions now being monitored and pill costs going up, users have turned to cheaper heroin, often cut with synthetic fentanyl, which is 10 times the strength of natural heroin, driving up overdose deaths.  Much of this heroin is brought in from out of state, according to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and court records.

As communities attempted to reduce the impact of opiate addiction, partnerships were formed among the towns, hospitals and treatment centers, social service agencies, government, and law enforcement. They have tried to craft a multi-pronged solution of treatment, education, and enforcement, using the best possible practices available to help those already in the grip of addiction, and keep kids and adults off the drugs in the first place.

In Lincoln County, this partnership will be called the Lincoln County Recovery Collaborative. While other towns are finding scholarship beds for addicts in other states, Lincoln County’s hope is to find beds locally, with outpatient treatment options for many.

Lincoln County medical and social service providers, including Addiction Resource Center, LincolnHealth, and Mid Coast Hospital, agree that a medication-assisted treatment option using buprenorphine (also known as suboxone) prescriptions are the best option. According to Eric Haram of ARC, patients treated with suboxone remain in treatment longer and have higher success rates than those who try “abstinence-only” programs. Seventy-five percent of those on suboxone remain in treatment beyond a year, while 20 percent of those who aren’t on medication-assisted treatment die within six months.

Maine has few in-patient treatment options, but in Lincoln County, ARC pledges to get people suffering from addiction into medication-assisted treatment in five days or fewer.

People seeking help will be able to walk into a police department or the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. The officer on duty will check for active warrants, but if the person has none, the officer will contact one of a group of people called “angels,” who will shepherd the patient to his or her first treatment or meeting, and assist them in getting whatever support they need to get clean and sober.

People treated for an overdose will also be offered the program, and families of those afflicted will also be informed of the various options.

“Months of work by the steering committee has led to agreement between these parties on this important collaboration,” wrote Sen. Chris Johnson. “The agreement will be the first step, and mark the beginning of the collaboration between law enforcement, LincolnHealth and Mid Coast Hospital's ARC. But it will also mark the resumption of our work among interested parties, figuring out how to support and augment their efforts within our communities to prevent and treat addiction.”