CALAIS – A grass-roots organization is ready to do further battle with the opiate problem that plagues the area.

Neighbors Against Drug Abuse is kicking off an effort to raise money to hire a part-time executive director who would guide the group through its next phase.

The board of directors also plans to apply for grants.

NADA organized three years ago with the goal of putting together a comprehensive substance abuse program that would include prevention, education, assessment and treatment to cover all phases of drug addiction and abuse.

The opiate problem emerged more than three years ago when police began to find an inordinate amount of prescription drugs among addicts in the area.

The drugs included Dilaudid and OxyContin, narcotics that users snort or shoot into a vein. NADA was formed in response to the problem.

Organizers Nancy Green, a nurse-midwife, and state Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, a nurse practitioner, said that NADA has reviewed its efforts, including its work to persuade state and local agencies to deal with the problem.

Green said NADA also has done much to make the public aware of the problem.

She said the group has attracted national publicity because of stories in newspapers from California to New York. In addition, NADA founders have addressed congressional hearings and been invited to meet with other grass-roots groups that view it as a model.

“There’s still a lot to be done in education and prevention for the community, the whole county,” she said.

The organization’s goals are to:

. Develop a community library that would serve as a clearinghouse for information about substance-abuse issues.

. Create a speaker’s bureau to meet with groups to talk about the problem.

. Develop an advocacy group to find solutions to drug problems.

. Educate parents about the need to talk to their children about the drug problem.

The organization’s next meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Calais High School.

NADA member Dan Hollingdale said people can take their bottles to the Can Man on Boardman Street and tell owner Rick Roussel that the money should be given to NADA. “At the end of each month he will write us a check to NADA,” Hollingdale said.