Opiates Conference to Feature Maine High Schoolers

As part of National Heroin and Opioid Awareness Week -- designated by the Department of Justice as the week of September 19-23, 2016 -- Maine students from high schools throughout the state will be participating in “The One Life Project – The Youth Voice” at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine on Tuesday, September 20.  

The Maine Principal’s Association, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine, the Maine Attorney General’s Office, and the Bangor Daily News are sponsoring this one-day conference to bring together diverse groups of students from throughout the state and to provide them with an opportunity to talk about and have their voices heard on the issues of drug use and abuse.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office; Janet Mills, the Maine Attorney General; and John Morris, the Maine Commissioner of Public Safety have formed the Maine Opiate Collaborative so experts from the fields of treatment, prevention/harm reduction, and law enforcement can pool resources for recommendations to address the opiate epidemic.

The goal of the summit is to give youth a forum to discuss the issues they see in their schools and communities and to solicit their ideas on solutions. Information gathered at the summit will be shared with state and federal leaders, and school administrators and personnel to help inform future decisions about prevention efforts.

The summit will start at Cross Insurance Center at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday September 20, and should be completed by about 1:30 p.m.