Maine Alcohol and Drug Treatment Programs

If you are struggling with substance abuse and addiction in Maine, you should know that there are treatment and rehabilitation centers that can help you overcome these conditions, as well as prevent you from coming to any mental or physical harm - including but not limited to a drug/alcohol overdose. These centers often provide a wide variety of services, such as inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, as well as a medically managed detoxification program.

Today, Maine is known all over the world for its land preserves, rich maritime history, expansive coastal regions, and wilderness. All these factors make it one of the most attractive places in the United States.

However, these qualities are not enough to stop people from sinking down the spiraling wave of substance abuse and addiction. In fact, many residents in the state continue suffering from a wide variety of problems linked to alcohol and drugs.

These people - as well as their friends, families, and loved ones - can only find relief in the knowledge that there are proven drug and alcohol treatment facilities right in the state. These facilities are tailored to providing compassionate assistant to anyone struggling with mind altering and intoxicating substances.

Substance Use Trends in Maine

Chemical and psychological dependence on these substances has been known to cause great destruction to many. In particular, these conditions may ruin your health, relationships, quality of life, work, and many other aspects of your day to day life. Today, many residents of Maine struggle with addiction and different types of drugs are responsible for this problem.

The Maine Depart of Health and Human Services, for instance, release the following findings about substance abuse in the state among people between the ages of 18 and 25:

• 1 in every 10 of these people have abused prescription medications at least once in their lifetimes
• 32 percent reported that they had engaged in binge drinking the month before the study; this was also the highest range of this form of alcohol for all age groups
• 5 percent had used cocaine in the year before the study was conducted; this is in comparison to 1 percent of Maine residents above the age of 26
• 9 percent of people in this age group had engaged in heavy drinking with the month leading up to the study; this was the highest rate of this form of alcohol abuse among all age groups in the state
• These people had a higher likelihood of abusing prescription pain relief medications that individuals above the age of 26

Other reports show the following results:

• 58 percent of all the people who were enrolled in addiction treatment programs had co-occurring mental health conditions
• Close to 3 percent of all the adult women who were in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Maine in 2014 were pregnant
• Emergency responders in the state administered naloxone - a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses - to 829 local residents in 2014
• In 2012, about 8 percent of all pregnant women in Maine reported that they were still consuming alcohol
• In 2014, people between the ages of 30 and 34 experienced the highest number of fatal outcomes arising from ongoing substance abuse and dependence or overdose

Rates of Drug Overdose Deaths in Maine

Maine is like the rest of the United States in the sense that it has been struggling with relatively high rates of overdoses. Most of these incidents involve the abuse of prescription medications.

The Department of Health and Human Services in Maine, for instance, showed that fatalities arising from drug overdoses increased through 2011 to 2014:

• In general, deaths from drug overdoses rose from 155 deaths to 208 deaths - a rise of 34 percent
• Overdose deaths linked to fentanyl abuse, dependence, and addiction saw an increase in 207 percent from 14 deaths to 43 deaths
• Overdose deaths linked to morphine and heroin increased by 533 percent from 9 deaths to 57
• Additionally, deaths linked to illicit substance abuse shot up by 341 percent from 17 deaths to 75 deaths
• Overdose deaths related to benzodiazepine addiction shot up by 71 percent from 41 deaths to 70 deaths
• Overdose deaths related to cocaine abuse and dependence in Maine increased by 85 percent from 13 deaths to 24 deaths

In 2014:

• 1 in every 3 overdose deaths was linked to benzodiazepine abuse
• 1 in every 4 overdose deaths were connected to morphine or heroin
• 89 percent of all drug related overdose deaths involved prescription drugs

Statistics on Substance Abuse in Maine

In 2009, Maine saw 145605 admissions into alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers for a wide variety of substance use disorders. The rates of alcohol dependence and abuse in the state have been changing over time. However, they have consistently remained more or less close to similar rates at the national level - especially for people over the age of 12.

From 2007 to 2008, the state was ranked among the top 10 in the country for many different drug use categories. In the same period, Maine was listed among the top 10 for the rates of ongoing substance abuse, including past month use of illicit drugs among young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, past year cocaine abuse among young adults within this age group, and past month marijuana abuse among people past the age of 12.

The most recent government survey on Maine - from 2007 to 2008 - showed that 9.09 percent of all residents of this state had used illegal drugs the month prior to the study. At the time, the national average was at 8.02 percent.

Additionally, more than 2.9 percent of local residents reported that they had used illicit drugs - apart from marijuana - the month before the study. During this time, the national average was set at 3.58 percent.

Commonly Abused Substances in Maine

Although substance use disorders have been classified as a national epidemic, the numbers have still continued rising. Today, heroin is among the most commonly abused drugs - even in Maine - especially because it is cheaper than other opioids.

Consider the following statistics and facts about the most commonly abused intoxicating and mind altering substances in the state:

1. Alcohol

4207 people checked into rehabilitation centers in 2009 for alcohol as their primary substance of abuse. At the same time, the state had 2545 admissions for cases that combined alcohol addiction with dependence on another secondary substance.

2. Prescription Drugs

TEDS - or the Treatment Episode Data Set - shows that the number of people who were admitted into addiction rehabilitation centers in 2009 for opioid use disorders (excluding heroin) was set at 4434. Among these people, 47.9 percent were female while 52.1 percent were male.

3. Heroin

1362 people entered treatment centers in Maine for heroin abuse. Of this number, 41.8 percent were female while 58.2 percent were male. Additionally, 95.2 percent of this population was predominantly Caucasian.

4. Marijuana

About 1232 people were enrolled for ongoing treatment and rehabilitation for marijuana abuse and dependence in 2009. Of this number, 27 percent were female while 73 percent were male. The largest number of people who received this form of addiction treatment were aged between 12 and 17 years - 30.5 percent of the entire population seeking these rehabilitation services.

Statistics on Drug Courts, Fatalities, and Injuries in Maine

In 2007, ongoing substance abuse claimed 161 people in Maine. The same year, 198 people died in motor vehicle accidents while 107 lost their lives to incidents related to firearms.

Drug induced deaths in the state were at 12.2 deaths per 100,000 people which was somewhat close to the national rate of 12.7 deaths for every 100,000 people all over the United States.

Addiction Prevention Programs in Maine

With substance use disorders causing so many adverse effects and fatal overdoses in the state, Maine has been working hard to prevent these disorders from occurring in the first place.

In many cases, the state focuses on:

• Mass-Reach Health Communication to reduce substance and opioid substance abuse as well as the adverse health effects accompanying these behaviors
• Prescription monitoring programs to track every controlled substance and reduce the incidence of prescription drug abuse
• Providing prevention services in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Maine
• Substance use prevention, including underage drinking, prescription drug abuse, and marijuana abuse for all age groups
• Youth empowerment and engagement to prevent ongoing drug use and increase resilience among the youth

Addiction Treatment Programs in Maine

If you are struggling with substance abuse and addiction in Maine, it is highly likely that these conditions might be having a negative impact on your academic, career, relationship, and health goals.

To ensure that you do not continue going down the road to further addiction, therefore, you might want to consider checking into an addiction treatment and rehabilitation center. This way, you will receive the professional services you need to help you overcome your addiction before things get out of hand and you lose people, things, and aspects of your life that are important to you.