AUGUSTA - The Maine Legislature enacted a bill Tuesday sponsored by Rep. Richard Evans, D-Dover-Foxcroft, to establish the Maine Accidental Drug Overdose Death Review Panel. The panel will study the circumstances leading up to accidental overdose deaths and use the information gained to prevent future deaths.
"As a state, we need to be committed to doing everything we can to prevent overdoses," said Evans. "One way to help prevent those deaths is to examine the circumstances in the victim's life leading up to their death and see whether there were opportunities to change the trajectory of their lives."
The bill, LD 1718, will set up a panel made up of experts from the fields of medicine, law enforcement and substance use treatment to study certain overdose deaths and make policy recommendations based on what they learn from the events that led up to those deaths.
"This sort of study happens in other areas," said Evans. "For example, the state already has the Maternal, Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Panel which was established by statute in 2005 to study ways to reduce pregnancy-related deaths. Thirty-three other states already have similar panels to study overdose-related deaths, including New Hampshire which established theirs up last year."
The bill now heads to the governors desk.
Evans is a physician and surgeon and represents seven communities in Piscataquis County. He is in his first term in the Maine House of Representatives and serves on the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Evans], c. 812-1111