According to provisional national data released Wednesday, the number of fatal overdoses in Maine dropped by 16% last year. It was the first annual reduction in fatalities since 2018.

This is a welcome and persuasive development for our state. Nationally, the reduction in overdose fatalities was 3%. Statistically, only three states – Nebraska, Indiana and Kansas – fared as well or better than Maine. Nonfatal overdoses in Maine also declined last year, by 7.5% (from 9,760 to 9,047).

More recently, January of this year was the first month in more than two and a half years that the Portland Police Department says it did not respond to an overdose fatality.

Although the road ahead of us is still long and steep, Maine has succeeded in turning things around after an especially discouraging five years. The deadly grip of the opioid crisis grew tighter still during the extraordinary isolation, anxiety and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These results stem from the extraordinary efforts by many people across the state who have stood up to take on the opioid crisis, including those in recovery who are helping those struggling with addiction and Gov. Mills and the team she put together to lead the state’s efforts,” said Dr. Erik Steele, past president of the Maine Medical Association and member of the 1,000 Lives Campaign, a doctor-led initiative to reduce opioid-related deaths by 1,000 from baseline predictions over the coming five years.

Investment in prevention efforts, recovery community centers, in-patient detox capacity and the expansion of medication-assisted treatment in a variety of settings all play a part in the turnaround.

Many local experts and advocates have attributed the hard-won decline in overdose fatalities to the increased availability of the life-saving antidote naloxone, or Narcan, supply of which has been a priority of the Mills administration – in stark contrast to the administration that preceded it.

Former Gov. Paul LePage’s response to the opioid crisis, by belittling it and wishing it away, stood to fuel it. Narcan’s utility is in its availability – it has to be administered quickly in order to to be effective, meaning it needs to be very readily available.

In 2016, vetoing a bill that would have allowed Maine pharmacists to dispense Narcan without a prescription, LePage coldly said the drug served to “merely extend” lives until the next overdose. The bill had been supported by members of law enforcement and health organizations during its legislative hearing.

Two years later, LePage dragged his feet on rubber-stamping new rules under a law (passed over his objection, without his signature) that allowed pharmacists to dispense Narcan. As this editorial board wrote at the time: “Indeed, there’s no need to veto a bill when losing is assured, and you can just sabotage it later.”

Mercifully, the times have changed. As of last September, Narcan is available over the counter and online in Maine. As of last November, our public high schools began offering Narcan education alongside CPR and AED (defibrillator) training. As of January, state law enforcement officers were required to carry the drug.

In her State of the State address earlier this year, Gov. Mills said Maine had spent the past five years using “every proven tool we have to respond to the opioid epidemic.”

This work is not easy. Drug addiction is one of the most complex problems a populace has to confront. It’s made harder again without the interest and understanding of state leadership; thankfully, that is not something we have been without in recent years.

Dr. Noah Nesin, medical director of research and innovation at Community Care Partnership of Maine, told the Press Herald last week that he thought Maine doctors’ recent willingness to prescribe higher doses of Suboxone, a medication that decreases the severity of withdrawal symptoms, was also helping to reduce drug overdoses. Larger doses of Suboxone are necessary as drugs like fentanyl become more and more potent.

“We are much more nimble at adapting our systems than other states,” Nesin said.

Here in Maine, as nationally, this is still a very serious crisis. We have to stay nimble.

Editor’s note: Naloxone is available through the state at www.getmainenaloxone.org. If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ toll-free help line is reached by calling 211.