In case you missed it, the Bangor Daily News reported over the weekend that Paul LePage refused to allow Maine Marine Patrol, a law enforcement agency in Maine, to carry the life-saving overdose reversal drug naloxone. LePage dismissed the lifesaving medication as “fake security for drug addicts” in a written memo.
LePage’s response “made my heart stop because pretty much everything that he is saying in this note is fundamentally untrue,” said Courtney Gary-Allen, the organizing director for Maine Recovery Advocacy Project, a group that works on treatment access, the report stated.
“I couldn’t imagine a Maine on the front lines of the opiate crisis without the access to naloxone that we have today,” Gary-Allen continued.
The report outlines how LePage opposed expanding access to naloxone throughout his time in office because, according to the former Governor, the drug “does not save lives” but “merely extends them until the next overdose.” LePage’s opposition to naloxone earned him some of the sharpest criticism from Maine press of his entire time in office.
Governor Mills expanded access to naloxone in 2019, and, according to the report, the result has been that state-supplied Narcan has reversed more than 4000 overdoses.