The debate on the methadone clinic has left out many important questions that are vital to those who may need help.

Would treatment at the clinic be free or based on the ability to pay? And how about the alternative that has been proposed? Who pays?

The June 28 commentary by psychiatrist Jeffrey Barkin, M.D. provides so little information that it reads like propaganda. He states methadone treatment is a failure because “at least half of all patients treated with methadone will relapse and resume using other illegal drugs.”

Are there other treatments with a higher cure rate than 50 percent? Barkin tries to convince us there are. He suggests that talking people out of heroin usage is a more effective alternative as is treatment with a drug called buprenorhine. But he does not provide us with estimates or percentages of cure and failure rates.

I suspect the failure of counseling could reach more than 90 percent. Why not a buprenorhine clinic then? A discussion of the relative merits of this new drug and metahdone might enable people to make an informed decision.

All I want is for the state and Bangor to provide services to the unfortunates who are heroin and other addicts. Why should a simple issue be so clouded by propaganda and lack of information? Billie Hanes Bangor