Last November, The Acadia Hospital, with support from more than 20 community and media partners, including the Bangor Daily News, launched the Close to Home campaign. The campaign’s focus is to educate Maine residents about the dangers of opiate abuse. Opiates include, but are not limited to, oxycodone, Percocet, Vicodin and heroin.

Since that time, we have been sharing information about the opiate problem in Maine through public service announcements, business forums, group presentations, news articles and our Web site, www.closetohome

campaign.org.

Our efforts are now focused on two upcoming public forums. The first is a free preview of the new groundbreaking HBO documentary “Addiction,” which will be presented at 7 p.m. March 14 at The Acadia Hospital on Stillwater Avenue in Bangor.

HBO has produced an important documentary series aimed at helping Americans understand addiction as a treatable brain disease as well as spotlighting new medical advances. The program is the first of the 14-part series that will air on HBO from March 15-30.

At our forum next week, we will feature segments of the introductory piece followed by a panel discussion pertaining mostly to opiates and an open question-and-answer session. Preregistration is required since seating is limited. Call 973-6119 to preregister.

For those who live on Mount Desert Island or in surrounding communities, the MDI Alcohol & Drug Abuse Group has joined with other local agencies to sponsor a free screening of “Addiction.” The community is urged to attend at 7 p.m. March 15 at any one of three convenient island locations: MDI High School, Pemetic School and the Seal Harbor Firehouse. For more information on the MDI sessions, call 244-4012.

These local educational events are just a few of hundreds occurring all across the country as part of the HBO project. Additional information about the nationwide effort can be found online at www.addictionaction.org/about/about-the-project.html.

The second Acadia Hospital forum is for community members who are interested in how teens and young adults are becoming addicted to opiates through prescription drug use. The Close to Home campaign has teamed up with Community Health and Counseling Services and Eastern Maine Community College to offer the Bangor premiere of the short dramatic film “Falling,” created by the Maine nonprofit group Project Aware. The film will be shown at 7 p.m. April 12 at the EMCC campus on Hogan Road in Bangor.

Again, free and open to the public, the premiere will feature the film, information about how the project came to be and a question-and-answer session featuring substance abuse treatment providers along with Project Aware’s co-founder and the teen stars of the film. This program is designed for teens, young adults and adults, and is a great opportunity for families to attend and learn together why prescription drugs, when used incorrectly, can be so dangerous. Call 973-6119 to preregister.

As we move forward to address the growing opiate addiction problem in Maine, it is imperative that columns like “Finding a Fix” and community educational efforts like the ones mentioned above continue. Left unchecked, the residual effects of opiate abuse, particularly among teens, will reverberate through generations. We must work together now and alter the behavior, misconceptions and attitudes that lead to addiction.

Alan Comeau is the director of community relations at The Acadia Hospital in Bangor. Please join our weekly conversation about Maine’s substance abuse problem. We welcome stories, comments or questions from all perspectives. Letters may be mailed to Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04401. Send e-mail contributions to findingafix@bangordailynews.net. Column editor Meg Haskell may be reached at (207) 990-8291 or mhaskell@bangordailynews.net.