{"content":[{"text":"Maine Monthly Overdose Report","bbox":{"left":0.288175,"top":0.152955,"width":0.42366299999999996,"height":0.027511000000000008}},{"text":"For January 2021 \n Released February 2021 \n Marcella H. Sorg \n Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center \n University of Maine","bbox":{"left":0.350009,"top":0.196777,"width":0.30000499999999997,"height":0.11252199999999998}},{"text":"Introduction \n This report, funded jointly by the Maine Office of Attorney General and the Office of Behavioral \n Health, provides an overview of statistics regarding suspected and confirmed fatal and nonfatal \n drug overdoses in Maine during the month of January, 2021. Data for the report were collected at \n the Office of Chief Medical Examiner and as part of the Maine Naloxone Distribution Initiative. \n This report inaugurates a series of monthly reports to be produced within about two weeks of \n the end of the month, designed to improve transparency and timeliness regarding the Maine’s \n epidemic of substance use morbidity and mortality. Year-to-date numbers will be updated with \n each new monthly report, as cases are finalized, and their overdose status is confirmed or ruled \n out. The totals are expected to shift as this evolution occurs. In addition, due to the smaller \n sample size in each month, we expect totals to fluctuate due to the effects of random variation. \n These monthly reports will be posted on https://mainedrugdata.com.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.323671,"width":0.7648010000000001,"height":0.23517400000000005}},{"text":"A “drug death” is defined when one or more drugs are mentioned on the death certificate as a \n cause or significant contributing factor for the death. Most drug-induced fatalities are accidents \n related primarily to drug lethality, the unique vulnerability of the drug user, such as underlying \n medical conditions, and the particular circumstances surrounding that drug use during that \n moment. Although there are medical, psychosocial, or public policy interventions that can affect \n individual vulnerability and circumstances, the lethality of the drug or drug combination is \n rarely amenable to policy interventions.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.571608,"width":0.761274,"height":0.131177}},{"text":"By highlighting drug death totals at the monthly level, this report will bring attention to the \n often dramatic shifts in totals that can occur from month to month. Yet, these fluctuations are \n common with small numbers, and will tend toward an average. Whereas the overall number \n of overdose deaths is a critical indicator of individual and societal stress, this metric itself can \n be quite resistant to public policy interventions due to its complexity. Overdose fatalities occur \n because of multiple unique and interacting factors, as mentioned above. For that reason, these \n reports will develop ways to monitor components that can be directly affected by specific public \n health education and harm reduction interventions. For example, we will report the number \n that had access to naloxone, and future reports will document the number who were alone while \n using.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.715548,"width":0.764562,"height":0.187994}},{"text":"1","bbox":{"left":0.495508,"top":0.936364,"width":0.006629999999999969,"height":0.016652}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}