Methadone-related deaths in Maine have decreased for the second year in a row, but cocaine-related deaths are on the rise, according to a new report from the Margaret Chase Smith Center on Public Policy at the University of Maine. In 2005, 23 drug-related deaths involved the presence of cocaine, while in 2006 the number was 31.

“Cocaine is emerging as a very significant problem in Maine,” researcher and professor Marcella Sorg said Friday.

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency director Roy McKinney confirmed Sorg’s findings. Cocaine and crack cocaine have been present in Maine for many years, he said, but in the past two years his agency has seen a marked increase.

“About 50 percent of our arrests and investigations now involve cocaine,” McKinney said Friday. He added that the amount of cocaine seized in drug busts has increased as well, including almost a kilogram of crack cocaine confiscated at a single raid in southern Maine in 2007.

“That amount is pretty much unheard of in Maine,” he said.

McKinney said threatened federal cuts announced earlier this week could slash his $1.7 million budget by 67 percent or more, down to about $500,000. His statewide operation is already operating “at a minimal level” now, he said, and the cuts “don’t bode well for safety and public health in Maine.”

Since 2002, UMaine’s Sorg has been compiling and analyzing information from the state medical examiner’s office to track patterns in accidental deaths and suicides related to drug use. She also tracks admissions for treatment, arrests, evidence from crime scenes and other materials to establish trends in drug use.

In an analysis from June 2007, Sorg said that the number of people being treated for cocaine dependency increased every year since 2000 and that the age of those seeking treatment is getting younger.

In addition to the growing problem of cocaine, Sorg’s most recent report, released Thursday, points to Maine’s high level of illicit use of prescription narcotics and other drugs. Deaths related to prescription narcotics as a group decreased from 2005 to 2006 – the latest year for which statistics were available – but the painkiller oxycodone was more deadly in 2006 than in either of the two previous years, according to the report. Benzodiazapines – mood-affecting drugs such as Valium and Xanax – were involved in 27 deaths in 2006 and the same number in 2005.

Overall, deaths related to prescription drugs dropped from 141 in 2005 to 133 in 2006. The numbers include deaths in which combinations of drugs and alcohol were identified in toxicology reports.

Methadone – primarily in the tablet form prescribed for pain and not the liquid used to manage opiate addiction, Sorg stressed – was implicated in 67 deaths in 2006, down from a high of 76 deaths in 2004 but significantly higher than the 23 related deaths in 2000.

While drugs get to drug abusers by a number of routes, she said, one important source is legal prescriptions. Sorg said Maine’s experience with prescription drug abuse also is playing out in other states, reflecting what she calls “a perfect storm” of forces.

For one thing, she said, several years ago physicians nationwide came under fire for failing to adequately treat severe pain, especially in the terminally ill. Since that time, she said, the profession has made pain control a priority, including the alleviation of chronic pain associated with back injury or other nonterminal conditions.

Second, direct-to-consumer advertising has created unprecedented demand for all kinds of medications, Sorg said. Thanks to the barrage of drug ads, she said, “There is more acceptance for using prescription drugs for whatever problem you may have.”

A third factor contributing to the availability and misuse of prescription drugs is a national trend toward treating mental health problems in primary care practices instead of in specialty practices, Sorg said. Insurers prefer primary care because it is less costly. In addition, specialists sometimes are not available, especially in rural areas, so prescribing is often carried out by primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and others who may have less training and experience in prescribing appropriately and preventing abuse.

The result, Sorg said, is a flood of legally prescribed drugs at Mainers’ bedsides and in their medicine cabinets, some of which invariably find their way to the street.

At the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, acting director Guy Cousins said Friday that his agency has been working closely with the Maine Medical Association and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to provide guidance to Maine doctors and other providers regarding their prescribing practices.

He said a new federal grant he hopes to be awarded will help health care providers identify patients who may be at risk of or who are actively abusing medications and will help get those patients into appropriate treatment.

He also said the agency is studying ways to make it easier for people to get into treatment – by reducing waiting lists, for example – to keep them in treatment for as long as they need to stay.

Cousins said public awareness programs in Portland, Waterville and, most recently, in Bangor are aimed at getting drug overdose victims into emergency care as soon as possible.

Cousins pointed out that alcohol remains by far the greatest substance abuse problem in Maine, accounting for more than 11,000 admissions to treatment programs in 2007, compared to 1,584 for OxyContin and 606 for cocaine.

For more information about substance abuse in Maine, including research and treatment, visit www.maine.gov/dhhs/osa.

mhaskell@bangordailynews.net

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