Director of Outpatient Services
Peter Wohl discusses Bath Salts
The drugs collectively known as “bath salts” have received a lot of attention recently in Maine. This is perhaps not surprising, given the fact that the use of these substances has grown rapidly and have sometimes resulted in severe reactions such as paranoia, agitation, psychosis and violence.
Substances that are referred to as bath salts include a class of drugs known as amphetamines and those in the classification of synthetic cathinones. Like cocaine and amphetamines such as “meth,” they can produce dramatic and dangerous effects relatively quickly, so it is certainly important to acknowledge the serious nature of these drugs.
On the other hand, the high degree of attention given to this issue is surprising in light of the fact that Maine has been experiencing a far more widespread and dangerous drug epidemic for years, which has received relatively little attention from policymakers and the press.
I am speaking of the epidemic of opioid use, which has been growing at an astonishing rate in Maine for at least a decade. Opioids include such prescription medications as oxycodone, morphine and methadone and the street drug heroin. Among Maine women, the use of opioids had a startling increase from 1998-2007: Heroin 461%, Methadone 4,020%, and other opiates and synthetics 1,232%. The opioid group increased in the relative percentage of the whole of substance use from 7% in 1998 to 38% in 2007.
In this state, the prescription forms of opioids have achieved such an unprecedented popularity that Maine is number one in the United States in the per capita use of these drugs. It would seem that fact alone would have galvanized a major public health and policy response. However that fact doesn’t reveal some of the most tragic aspects of this crisis. In 2008, 215 babies were born addicted to opiates in the state of Maine, a sixteen fold increase since 2000.
In addition, from 1997-2008, 1,445 Mainers lost their lives due to drug overdoses and 76% of those deaths were unintentional. The most common drug category involved in these deaths was opioids. Either used alone or along with other drugs, they accounted for 35.5% of the deaths.
Maine law enforcement officials have been increasingly vocal about the impact that opioid addiction has on crime. Once an individual has become addicted to opioids, however, simply jailing them has little effect on their behavior. As long as incarcerated individuals continue to be addicted, chronic reoffending is likely. It is through treatment and recovery programs that opioid addicted persons can begin to move towards recovery, returning to productive lives in society.
Unfortunately, during the same period that this epidemic has been growing, treatment resources in Maine have been dwindling due to funding cutbacks. Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty observes that, “in many cases, individuals have a very difficult time in conquering opiate addiction. That is why we created the Correctional Addiction Recovery Academy, or C.A.R.A., at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility.”
C.A.R.A., created in partnership with Crisis & Counseling Centers, effectively engages participants to rethink and alter the negative behaviors associated with dependency. Since first piloted in late 2010, 63 men and women have graduated from the program, with another eight scheduled to graduate next week.
However, programs like C.A.R.A. can currently only reach a tiny percentage of the addicted population, and when C.A.R.A. graduates re-enter the community they still require significant recovery support to deal with the numerous challenges that await them.
Beyond the staggering human costs, having many thousands of untreated opioid addicts across Maine is costing this state millions of dollars. Crimes that result in property loss, hospitalizations, shattered families and children taken into DHHS’s care, the increased costs of law enforcement responses and incarcerations, and the loss of part of our workforce reflect just some of the costs. And the fact remains that this drug crisis in our state is growing exponentially.
Rather than a fear-based response triggered by the increased use of bath salts that focuses exclusively on new laws and a purely criminal justice response, we need a strong coordinated effort to develop comprehensive prevention, treatment and law enforcement resources. In Maine, this drug problem is fueled by poverty, isolation and despair and it will not go away on its own.
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