Drug overdoses are killing Mainers at the rate of one a day, the greatest public health crisis to hit the state since the AIDS outbreak of the 1980s. The newspaper captured the human impact of this epidemic with Lost, a series rooted in the struggles, courage and grief of 60 Maine families who lost loved ones to overdoses of heroin, fentanyl or prescription painkillers. The 10-part series explored not only the stories of the dead, but also the threat that addiction poses to the living, in a state where treatment, compassion and the political will to tackle the crisis are in short supply.

– DIETER BRADBURY,
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR/NEWS