Sheriff asks county to explore placing resident MDEA agent after overdose and drug-call spike

The sheriff told the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners he would like permission to explore a one-year contract with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to house a resident drug agent in the county.

The sheriff said the county has averaged roughly 129 drug-investigative calls per year in recent years and that local responders have recorded 411 overdoses countywide, of which nine were fatalities. “We’ve seen 411 overdoses right here in Lincoln County alone. 411 overdoses,” the sheriff said, adding: “The good news out of that, if there is any, is that only 9 of those were fatalities.” He said those figures and trends motivated the request to pursue an MDEA resident agent.

Under the arrangement the sheriff described, MDEA typically reimburses wages and benefits for a deputy assigned as a resident agent; the principal local budget impacts would be limited to occasional training or mandatory local staff meetings and the temporary need to backfill the deputy’s local duties. The sheriff said he would aim for a one-year pilot so the county could evaluate results before considering a longer commitment.

Commissioners pressed for details about regional coordination with neighboring counties and how local coverage would be maintained while a deputy was assigned to MDEA. The sheriff said MDEA’s district model is designed for interagency information sharing across the four-county district and that resident agents are sworn statewide and can work across jurisdictions when operations require it.

The sheriff said he will prepare a draft contract and a staffing/advertising plan and return to the board for review and possible approval at a future meeting, possibly as early as July depending on state timing. No formal contract was approved at the meeting.