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WEBVTT STATEAND INTO ONE'S LIFE.>> I TRAVEL 200 TO 3 MILESEVERY NIGHT.DAVID: YOU CAN SAY THE DRUGOVERDOSES WILL ALWAYS BE PART OFSERGEANT MATTHEW BAKER.AN EPIDEMIC THAT CLAIMED 272MAINERS LAST YEAR.WHEN THOSE CALLS FOR HELP COMEIN, SERGEA BAKER WASTHERE.>> VOTTO WANT TO TELL SOMEBODYTHAT A FAMILY MEMBER HAS DIED.DAVID: THE MORNING OF FEBRUARY26 WILL BE NO DIFFERENT.>> WHEN I CAME HOME, EVERYTHINGWAS QUIET.DAVID: THE HOUSE EERILY STILL.HIS DAUGHTER, HER BOYFRIEND ANDTHEIR 11 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER.AMONG THE SILENCE, A LIGHTPEEKING OUT FROM THE SECONDFLOOR BATHROOM.>> NOBODY ANSWERED ME.DAVID: THE COMMOTION AWOKE THEBOYFRIEND.>> HE STARTED HOLLERING TO ME.DAVID: INSIDE, RYAN WAS SLUMPEDOVER THE TOILET AND THERE WASPOWDER ON THE COUNTER.>> IT WAS OBVIOUS SHE WASSNORTING SOMETIME OF DRUG.DAVID: SERGEANT BAKER WAS NOW ONTHE OTHER SIDE OF THE CALL.>> I CALLED 911 AND SPOKE TOMY DISPATCHER, SAYING I NEEDEDHELP.DAVID: HE PERFORMED CPR.>> THAT WAS THE LAST ACTIVITY.DAVID: WAITING FOR HELP.>> THEY GAVE HER SEVERAL DOSESOF NARCAN BUT IT WAS TOO LATE.DAVID: RONNIE BAKER DIED.HER CAUSE OF DEATH WASACCIDENTAL OVERDOSE ON HEROINEAND THA FENTANYL.>> WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS GOINGON UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE.DAVI THERE HAD BEEN A HISTORYOF SUBSTANCE ABUSE.PILLS, BUT NEVER HEROIN.>> ADDICTION CHANGES PEOPLE.IT MAKES GOOD PEOPLE DO BADTHINGS, BUT IT IS NOTNECESSARILY MAKE THEM BADPEOPLE.DAVID: NOW A YEAR LATER,RONNIE'S DAUGHTER IS TWO, LIVINGWITH BAKER AND HIS WIFE IN AHOUSE FULL OF MEMORIES.>> SHE LOOKS AT THE PICTURES OFHER MOM AND SHE KNOWS WHO IT IS.DAVID: WHEN SHE ASKS FOR MOM,TH TWO LOOK UP PAST THE SECONDFLOOR BATHROOM RIGHT TO THE SKY.>> I TOLD HER THE FULL MOON ISMOM.

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Addiction is reaching every Maine community, including Stow, a town with a population of fewer than 400, in Oxford County. "I travel 200-300 miles every night," Oxford County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Matthew Baker said from his cruiser. Drug overdoses in Western Maine will always be part of Baker's story. "We've never had the epidemic that we're having now," Baker said. When a person calls 911 for help in Oxford County, law enforcement personnel, such as Baker, respond with firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Baker often arrives before the ambulance. "What goes through my mind is dread, because I don't want to tell somebody that their family member has died," Baker said. Feb. 26, 2015, would be no different. Baker returned home from his night shift at 2:30 a.m. Asleep inside his house: his daughter, Ronni, 23, her boyfriend and the couple's 11-month-old daughter. "When I came home, everything was quiet," Baker said. "I knew there was something wrong." Baker noticed a second-floor bathroom light was on, but when he called upstairs, no one answered. The commotion awoke Ronni's boyfriend, who was able to kick open the bathroom door. "He opened up the door and he started hollering at me," Baker said. Inside, Ronni was slumped over the toilet and there was powder on the bathroom counter. "It was obvious she had been snorting some type of drug," Baker said. "I called 911 and spoke to my dispatcher and told her who it was and that I needed some help." Baker performed CPR, and paramedics arrived. They gave Ronni several doses of Narcan, also known as naloxone, an antidote to opioid overdoses. But it was too late. Ronni Baker died a short time later. Her cause of death was listed as accidental overdose of heroin and the potent pain reliever fentanyl. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more potent that heroin. Ronni is one of the 272 Mainers who died from a drug overdose in 2015. Heroin or fentanyl are blamed for 157 of those deaths. Pharmaceutical opioids played a factor in 111 deaths, according to the Maine Attorney General's Office. The Attorney General's Office has not released numbers for the first half of 2016.Prescription pills, which those suffering from substance use disorder call a gateway drug to heroin, are readily available in Maine. According to a 2014 CDC report, Maine ranked first in the nation for long-term opioid prescriptions per capita. Heroin is coming to Maine from Mexico's poppy fields, where it is produced. Dealers are finding a market in New England. What can be sold for $5 in New York City can go for $40 in Maine, said Roy McKinney, the director of Maine's Drug Enforcement Agency. According to a federal report released in 2015, all six New England states reported heroin as their greatest drug threat. Heroin is being sold in several formats. Bundles of packets, each containing less than a gram, and fingers, about 10 grams packed into the end of a latex glove, are the most common. The Maine Turnpike and Interstate 95 are providing an easy route for dealers to get heroin farther north, McKinney said. "We didn't know what was going on until it was too late," Baker said. "The addiction changes people. It makes good people do bad things, but it doesn't necessarily make them bad people." Fifteen months after her death, Ronni's daughter, Claire, is 2 years old. She lives with Baker and his wife in a house full of memories. " looks at the pictures and she knows who it is," Baker said. "I think that it's important that she knows her mom and she knows exactly what happened." When Claire asks for her mother, she and her grandfather look up, past that second-floor bathroom, to the sky. "I've always told her that that full moon is mum," Baker said. "We go outside, and she says, 'Goodnight moon and goodnight mum.'" Narcan Baker was not carrying Narcan with him that February morning, but said some deputies in his department are now training with it. "I think that it's a lifesaving medication," Sarah Coupe said about Narcan. "It's just as lifesaving as what they would give the EpiPen to a person having an allergic reaction." Narcan revived Coupe's son, Alex, 27, of Portland. He has battled opioid addiction for the last seven years. His addiction started with prescription painkillers, which led to heroin. "One day, I thought I was purchasing heroin on the street and it was, in fact, mostly fentanyl," Alex Coupe said. Coupe said he was with a friend last July in Biddeford and snorted the drug. "Next thing I know, I am being woken up by paramedics," he said. It took three doses of Narcan to revive him. Alex is one of the more than 1,300 people in Maine last year who are alive because of the antidote. Making Narcan available to civilians became one of the major Maine political battles of 2016. At the end of April, the Legislature overwhelming overturned Gov. Paul LePage's veto for a bill allowing the purchase of Narcan without a prescription. LePage said Narcan will not solve the state's heroin epidemic. " shot of Narcan is $70 and the person who gets it doesn't have to pay it back," LePage said during an April town hall. "I think the first time, second time, third time even. I don't mind them not paying it back because it's very difficult to get off addiction, but after a dozen times, I think it's time we make a new arrangement." The governor said access to Narcan will not break the cycle of addiction. "People think it's going to enable use or encourage it," said Ross Hicks, the harm reduction coordinator at Health Equity Alliance. "There really isn't any evidence to back that up." By the end of 2017, Mainers will be able to go into a pharmacy, get training and walk out with Narcan. Alex said that July night was a turning point in his recovery, and he is looking ahead to law school. It's a future he said may not have existed. "I wouldn't be able to imagine it. I would probably be dead," he said. Treatment Bob Fowler is the executive director for Portland's Milestone Foundation, the city's only remaining inpatient detoxification program for substance abuse. "We're turning away 10, 20 more every single day who are calling for our detox," Fowler said. Fowler said in some cases, not being able to help those calling for help can have dire consequences. "That can be a death sentence for a lot of these individuals," he said. Inpatient monitored detoxification, like the program offered at Milestone, is not the only treatment available. Several outpatient programs, such as methadone clinics, dispense medication to wean heroin addicts off the illicit drug. Some doctors will also prescribe patients Suboxone, which has a similar effect. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the relapse rate for drug addiction is 40 to 60 percent. Numbers were not broken down by drug. A number of organizations in Southern Maine have scaled back their services, and some have even shut their doors. Last year, Mercy Hospital closed its substance abuse treatment center in Westbrook. Around the same time, a methadone clinic in Sanford also closed. But some health care providers believe another drug, marijuana, could be the solution. "It can be used to treat the symptoms of opioid withdrawal," Dr. Dustin Sulak said. "It can be used to help people maintain abstinence from opioids by treating addiction areas of the brain and treating the problems they were using opioids for in the first place." Sulak is leading the charge in Maine to allow medical marijuana to be used to treat opioid addiction. The Department of Health and Human Services is debating it and has until July 10 to make a final decision. LePage said $76 million spent in Maine this fiscal year for treatment and prevention would be better spent on Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents who can curb the supply. In January, the Legislature approved a $3.7 million package that included funding sought by LePage for 10 additional agents for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. It also included an expansion of drug treatment programs and a 10-bed detoxification center. LePage has blamed commercial insurance companies for not paying for enough treatment and said too many Mainers are dependent on MaineCare. He said Mainers who no longer qualify for the program should be able to purchase health insurance on the federal exchange. "If you can't afford $1.75 a month, what the hell are you doing on heroin? When are we going to get off this issue that the state is responsible for your health care?" he said. "Insurance companies don't often consider inpatient opiate detox to be medically necessary, but we bill to insurance when we can," Fowler said. Fowler also said those without insurance can rarely access outpatient services, like methadone treatment, to stay clean. The Maine Association of Health Plans, which represents Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, sent WMTW News 8 a statement in response. "Substance abuse is a national public health problem for which treatment protocols are as varied as the type of addiction," the statement said. "All members of the Maine Association of Health Plans cover detoxification and rehabilitation -- including treatment for opiate addiction -- when such treatment is consistent with nationally recognized, evidence-based criteria. Furthermore, the association remains committed to being a partner with state and local policymakers as they seek to address the issue of opiate addiction." There are also programs like Scarborough's Operation HOPE, which stands for Heroin-Opiate Prevention Effort. The program has placed 150 Mainers into treatment since October 2015. Scarborough Police Chief Robbie Moulton said two-thirds of those participants lack the health insurance coverage or financial ability to seek treatment on their own. Operation HOPE relies on scholarship services, which are provided by a national network of treatment facilities. The majority of Mainers have been sent to out-of-state facilities, some as far away as Arizona. Prevention Maine lawmakers hope their work will pay off. For Jesse Billings, it only took one prescription. "At 17, I got into a car accident, and that was more or less what started it when it came to opiates," he said. Now 22 years old, Billings has been sober more than 100 days. He is far from the only person with a story that started with a prescription and ended with addiction. One in five people taking prescription opiates will become addicted, said Dr. Christopher Pezzullo, DHHS' chief health officer. "It's not like a hidden conversation; it's right out there in the open," he said. In 2014, doctors prescribed 80 million opioid pills to Mainers. In 2015, that number grew to 100 million. A bill enacted in April limits prescriptions, both in terms of how many pills can be prescribed and how doctors can prescribe them. The bill requires doctors to receive continuing education every two years and implements electronic prescriptions by July 1, 2017. It also limits the strength of opioids and benzodiazepines. While the state is working on prevention in Augusta, Maine students are also looking at ways to curb the epidemic. Sarah Salter and two of her classmates, Aalliyah Ferreira and Tae Caterina, are working to educate their peers about it at Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland. "I think just trying to make a change, even though we are seventh-graders," Salter said. "It's as big a deal as smoking," Ferreira said. What started as a project has turned into a community effort. A forum, a 5K and a candlelight vigil are planned. The girls said the pressures of drugs and drug use starts early, and they said education is the key to prevention. "It only takes a little bit of a drug to have your life be taken away from you," Caterina said. That's a lesson Billings said he wishes he had learned. "I guess any little bit of awareness that anyone gets, they should take seriously and really, really think about," he said. Enforcement Part of that awareness is also about minimizing the stigma surrounding drug abuse. When a new law takes effect in July, Maine will join a handful of states in which people who are caught with small amounts of drugs cannot be charged with a felony. Unless there are aggravating factors, possession of less than 200 milligrams of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine or pills will be considered a misdemeanor, no matter how many times it happens. State Rep. Mark Dion, D-Portland, who spent 12 years as Cumberland County sheriff, authored the amendment, which essentially rolled back the state penalties. "All we did with this amendment is recognize the true nature of addiction," Dion said. "I have a problem with turning someone who is 21 years old facing heroin addiction into a felon where, when he's 45, will wonder why he's been robbed of his ability to have a normal life." LePage thinks taking away an officer's ability to charge someone with a felony robs police of an important tool. "What we're trying to do is say, 'You have a choice: to get a felony on your record or you can go to the rehab.' We want them to go to rehab; we want to get them well," the governor said during a May town hall. But the governor's opposition to change only went so far. "The governor had the opportunity to veto this bill, and he decided not to do that," said Oamshri Amarasingham, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. The ACLU pushed for the change to lessen penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs. "Substance use disorders are a public health crisis, not an incarceration problem," she said. There are 49 drug agents for the entire state. While the MDEA agency is primarily concerned with drug dealers, McKinney said patrol officers all over Maine routinely see drug users essentially shrug off misdemeanors. The MDEA does not hire agents. Instead, they are contracted from local, state and tribal departments on a temporary basis, McKinney said. Maine drug agents made 265 heroin arrests in 2015. That is a 22 percent increase from 2014 and more than a 200 percent increase from 2012. "People that are (in) the throes of addiction, they're just interested in getting out the door, paying the $400 fine, do what they can and move on," McKinney said. McKinney said the threat of a felony gives police and prosecutors another tool to steer people to treatment and recovery programs. "It's a nudge in that direction," he said. "I think that's a very simplistic view," Dion said. "It assumes that today I'm considering putting a needle in my vein only because it's a misdemeanor but tomorrow, if it's a felony, I'm less inclined to do that." Recovery Andrew Kiezulas, 34, said his battle with substance abuse disorder began early. At 5 or 6 years old, he was taking shots of alcohol. "I did well in school. I was to be a two-sport collegiate athlete and wound up an IV (intravenous) drug user," he said. "The story is a lot more frequent than people think." Kiezulas could be the poster child for that one person you might never have guessed would become hopelessly addicted. "I have recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body," said Kiezulas, who has been sober for 4 years. "I was very physically addicted to opiates and drugs." Kiezulas slipped on ice and hurt his back at work. He herniated two disks and was put on disability insurance for more than three years. Legally prescribed pain pills were how it all began. "When I found opiates and a supply of them, it took over very quickly," he said. As soon as those prescription pills came, they disappeared. The doctors cut off his supply but by then, he was already hooked. Kiezulas' addiction soon led to heroin. It was cheaper and easier to find. For more than three years, he would inject himself up to a dozen times a day. "I knew the heroin would make me feel better and so I did it," he said. But luckily, Kiezulas had his family by his side. They eventually got him into rehab in New Hampshire at a cost of $6,000. He believes that saved his life. "I see a lot of people who don't have that support, don't have those resources and it's a near death sentence," he said. Back on his feet, Kiezulas is now a student at the University of Southern Maine, where he is studying chemistry. Just months after getting back on his feet, Kiezulas found his roommate dead from an apparent heroin overdose. "Not only have I seen, but also felt , and that's something that I certainly relive daily," Kiezulas said. And he gets flashbacks of his life before this new chapter, called "Recovery," began."I get feelings, I think thoughts, and I ask for help," Kiezulas said. Kiezulas is also helping others. He is the president and co-founder of Students in Recovery, a peer support group at USM, and the founder and chapter leader of Young People in Recovery's Maine chapter. One can often find him at the Portland Recovery Community Center, where he also volunteers. His mission: unburdening the fear, the stigma and the shame surrounding heroin addiction and substance abuse disorder. "I had forgotten that I had value, that the things that I did and the things I thought mattered and that I could be useful and have a purpose," Kiezulas said. The group Help ME Recover will hold a walk to raise money for the Portland Recovery Community Center on June 11. The event will begin at Payson Park at 8:30 a.m. For more information visit helpmainerecover.org. (Cristina Frank, Paul Merrill, Steve Minich, Tracy Sabol and Meghan Torjussen contributed to this story.) Get the WMTW App