LINNEUS — For the second time in the past 15 months, a statewide prescription drug abuse prevention program is facing a struggle to secure long-term funding, an official with the agency said earlier this week.
Clare Desrosiers, director of the Diversion Alert program, said last week that the agency, which assists Maine health care providers in identifying patients who may be abusing or illegally distributing prescription drugs, will lose its funding by the end of December. The agency needs to raise $55,000 by April 2017 before it can be considered for financing in the state’s biennial budget cycle.
Currently, Diversion Alert is funded through a $95,000 one-time allocation from the Legislature, which was signed into law in July 2015 by Gov. Paul LePage.
Desrosiers said that in concert with applying for grant and other sources of public and private funding, she also went to the state Legislature’s legislative council this year with a request for further monies, which she said she was advised to do by the governor’s office last year.
Desrosiers said that the council, made up of legislative leaders who help determine which legislation gets submitted, “did not want to do another bill.”
She added that the governor initially offered to submit legislation, but then opted not to once he realized it likely would not be successful.
“We were told by the governor’s office that he supported the program and that there were funds available for us,” Desrosiers said, “but the funding stream was not a good fit.”
The loss of Diversion Alert would be “significant” for the state, she added,“especially given the dramatic increase in drug-related overdoses and the impact Diversion Alert has already made addressing prescription drug abuse and diversion in Maine.”
The program provides secure online access of drug arrest data to health care providers so they can identify patients who might be visiting different providers in search of prescription refills or to make new requests for opiates, narcotics and pain medications.
Each month, the program distributes a list of individuals arrested or summoned for prescription or illegal drug-related crimes in each public health district to prescribers, pharmacists and law enforcement agencies registered to receive the alerts. Health care providers are not required to share patient information with law enforcement officials.
Diversion Alert’s online database is the only system in Maine that links drug-related criminal charges statewide.
Adrienne Bennett, director of communications for Lepage’s office, confirmed Oct. 11 that the governor supported the program but said that “there is only so much the executive branch can do.”
In July, Diversion Alert began a new initiative with the Husson School of Pharmacy called Wabanaki Pathway to Hope and Healing, which includes Take Home Naloxone programs in each of the clinics of the five Native American tribes in the state. Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, is a potentially life-saving prescription medication that reverses the effects of an overdose caused by prescription narcotics or heroin. The drug restores breathing, potentially allowing users to survive an otherwise fatal overdose.
Desrosiers said the governor’s office indicated that there may be money for the agency in the next biennial budget.
“For now, we still have some grant applications out, I have applied for more, and we will be considering other options,” she said.
Those efforts include seeking corporate sponsorships and conducting a planned statewide fundraiser involving members of the recovery community and the communities and residents that helped them successfully seek treatment.
