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Maine will need an estimated $2 billion by 2030 to treat and care for opioid-affected children

By: Barbara Walsh

~~Excerpt

Babies withdrawing from opiates. Children watching their parents shoot up heroin. Orphans growing up in foster care.

They are the opioid epidemic’s youngest victims.

Nationally, an estimated 2.2 million children and adolescents were in crisis as of 2017 — 28 out of every 1,000.

According to The Ripple Effect, a report released today by United Hospital Fund (UHF) and the Boston Consulting Group, these children had a parent with opioid use disorder or had the disorder themselves.

The report noted the impact on children in each state in 2017. West Virginia had the highest rate, with 54 out of every 1,000 children affected.

Maine was ranked ninth, with 38 per 1,000 children affected, with a total of 10,500 impacted in 2017.

If current trends continue, the study noted, the number of children affected nationally by opioid use will nearly double from 2.2 million in 2017 to an estimated 4.3 million by 2030.