Like many patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, Todd Papianou, a high school teacher from Rumford, knows the thin line between life-saving and life-destroying medication.

The Sun Journal analyzed annual confirmed drug death counts, from 1997 through September 2021, using data from drug death reports.

The Sun Journal analyzed data from Maine’s Prescription Monitoring Program from 2016 to 2021; and data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System from 2006 to 2014.

METHODOLOGY The Sun Journal analyzed data from the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention of suspected fatal and nonfatal overdoses in emergency departments, from 2017 to 2021. The data is publicly available on the Maine CDC’s website

Twenty years after Purdue Pharma introduced its pain medication, OxyContin, Maine lawmakers passed a bill that significantly stemmed the flow of pain pills into the state. A Sun Journal investigation found the new restrictions may have been too little, too late: A generation of Mainers were already grappling with substance use disorder and a growing illicit drug trade was ready to meet the demand.