On International Overdose Awareness Day, Governor Mills Honors Maine People Lost and Embraces Lives Saved

As overdose deaths continue to decline in Maine, Governor urges sustained commitment to fighting substance use

Augusta, MAINE - Governor Janet Mills issued the following statement today in honor of International Overdose Awareness Day:

"On International Overdose Awareness Day, we remember those we've lost to the scourge of addiction and recommit to being relentless in the fight against substance use disorder. While we have seen overdose deaths drop in recent years, we know that each death is one too many. Together, we must all work to prevent addiction in the first place, and to support people as they start, stumble, or resume recovery."

In 2025, overdose deaths declined in Maine for the third consecutive year, continuing a trend of declining deaths since 2023. In 2024, Maine recorded its largest decrease in drug overdose deaths since 2018. Fatal overdoses have fallen by nearly 9 percent from January to June 2026 compared to the same period last year.

In announcing this data at her eighth annual Opioid Response Summit in July, the Governor welcomed the lives saved and significant progress achieved through prevention, naloxone distribution, treatment and recovery support, housing and workforce initiatives, and drug seizures. At the same time, she urged Maine people to sustain their commitment to supporting those on the path to recovery.

"On International Overdose Awareness Day, we pause to mourn each person claimed by the opioid epidemic, honor those who have survived and recovered, and recognize the profound progress we've made," said Gordon Smith, Maine Director of Opioid Response. "The sustained decline in overdoses and overdose deaths in Maine is a testament to our collective efforts to prevent people from using drugs, improve access to treatment, and support those in recovery. But more work remains to keep saving lives in both our cities and rural communities as we look ahead to the next phase of this fight."

"International Overdose Awareness Day is an opportunity to stop, reflect, and remember that every statistic represents a person, a family, and a community forever changed," said Sara Gagné-Holmes, Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner. "Maine's multipronged, statewide response of expanding access to prevention, treatment, and recovery supports is saving lives. By recommitting to advancing this work, we honor those we have lost."

Under Governor Mills' leadership, the state has taken significant actions to save lives from opioids, including:

• Providing health insurance coverage through MaineCare expansion to about 90,000 Mainers, with nearly 40,000 individuals receiving treatment for substance use;
• Expanding treatment for substance use and opioid use disorder with increases in Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD), and increasing Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) and providers across the state;
• Delivered recovery coach training to over 4,000 individuals, and recently leveraging federal Rural Health Transformation Program funding to further expand recovery support across the state, including in hospital Emergency Departments;
• Increasing the number of Recovery Community Centers to 19 and Certified Recovery Residences to 126 across the state, with more than 75% of participants entering from detoxification, residential treatment, homelessness, or incarceration;
• Establishing the OPTIONS Program statewide, including adding recovery coaches to OPTIONS teams in Maine to work alongside local emergency services and law enforcement to provide therapeutic interventions, outreach, referrals, and post-overdose follow-up for individuals;
• Developing Maine's statewide naloxone distribution program and increasing the distribution of naloxone by over 300 percent from 2020 to 2025. Since 2019, the Mills Administration has distributed more than 870,000 doses of naloxone, which has been used to reverse 12,768 overdoses that may have otherwise been fatal;
• Launching Maine's first Mobile Methadone Unit, which is providing services at the Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset, expanded to include sites at Belfast Soup Kitchen and will open at the Pleasant Street United Methodist Church in Waterville;
• Opening Crisis Receiving Centers in Cumberland, Androscoggin, and Penobscot counties to provide walk-in services for anyone suffering a mental health or substance use crisis, with another center opening soon in Androscoggin County;
• Expanding Maine's "Good Samaritan" law, first signed by Governor Mills in 2019, which encourages individuals to call for life-saving assistance when someone at their location is experiencing an overdose;
• Providing funding for medically monitored withdrawal beds through the Office of Behavioral Health to support room and board and other costs not covered by MaineCare;
• Vastly expanding team-based treatment of opioid use disorder for eligible MaineCare members and uninsured individuals through Opioid Health Homes; and
• Establishing Recovery Friendly Workplaces, with 86 businesses that employ nearly 25,000 employees now designated or certified, with locations in all 16 counties.