Category Archives: State

The quirks of Maine’s prescription monitoring program, from an ER doc’s perspective

Dr. Charles Pattavina became chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Joseph Hospital 6½ years ago. He hadn’t been at the Bangor facility more than a couple weeks when a man sent by the Maine office of substance abuse knocked on his door to talk about why he should use the state’s prescription […]

Is Maine ready to help prisoners released early? Has it ever been?

Starting Nov. 1, 2015, it’s possible that as many as 200 Maine inmates convicted of drug-related crimes will become eligible over time for an earlier release, under a likely change in federal sentencing guidelines. That means a greater number of federal prisoners could be returning to their homes, families and communities in a shorter period […]