Current Focus
Heroin & Opiates: Policing vs. Treatment: The opiate crisis in Maine is at an inflection point. The governor is promising a crackdown on users and traffickers. Yet those who need treatment face reduced medical benefits and tighter controls on opiate therapy drugs to prevent diversion. Both options are needed. Which will have better results for Maine?
We often think of addiction in broad terms — as statistics, as a brain disease, as a driver of crime. But what can we learn when we hear directly from those experiencing — and overcoming — addiction?
In the practice of medicine, four measurements have long served as indicators of the body’s basic functions: pulse, breathing, temperature, and blood pressure. In 1999, the Veterans Health Administration — the country’s largest government-run health care system — proposed a fifth vital sign: pain. The concept was initially promoted by the American Pain Society. The VA […]
Bangor Daily News blogger Alex Steed posted Thursday his personal account of the time in his life where he was addicted to pills.
BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor Daily News and Project AWARE will host a film festival showcasing videos written, produced and directed by Maine high school students about how drug abuse has changed their lives. The event, presented by Health Affiliates of Maine, will begin with a preview at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 22, at the […]
We’re pleased to announce the People’s Choice winner for our student film festival, Someone Who Cares, written and directed by David Rice of Winterport, a senior at Hampden Academy. The film is about a teen struggling with an addiction to prescription pills. It explores the feelings that he has as a result of his addiction and emphasizes the […]
The submissions are in, and now it’s time to vote. The BDN MaineFocus Film Festival, in which the Bangor Daily News asked teens statewide to create short films about how drug abuse has changed their lives, has collected all the films submitted and voting online is now open on Facebook. A Facebook account is needed in order […]
Visit this page to vote for your favorite student film!
Gov. Paul LePage is calling on Maine to reverse the “disturbing trend” of babies born affected by drug use. In his weekly radio address, the governor references a recent article he read detailing the problem in Tennessee, a state where 800 babies are expected to be born dependent on drugs this year. “What I find […]
The rapid rise of the sale of prescription drugs between 1999 and 2010 has resulted in a corresponding problem: death. Sales of prescription painkillers have quadrupled nationally in that time, and so have overdoses. Now more people die from prescription drug overdoses than those from heroin and cocaine combined. In Maine, the rate of death […]
Kenji Yamauchi, 24, has been involved with drugs for more than half his life, and hooked on heroin for years. He’s used Ecstasy, psychedelics and cocaine, and admits to “doing some pretty shady shit” to pay for drugs. He’s attempted suicide three times — most recently after finding himself in a homeless shelter and realizing […]
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