Methadone clinic backed by drug czar> U.S. attorney’s stance criticized

BANGOR – The nation’s drug czar Friday weighed in on a proposed methadone clinic for the city, taking the state’s top federal prosecutor to task for statements that “contradict the expert opinions of the country’s top public health and public safety officials.”

Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Barry R. McCaffrey officially supported the controversial clinic, which has divided the city of 35,000 in recent months.

“If we don’t like crime, paying a fortune to lock up chronic drug users, and the terrible health consequences of heroin addiction, then we should support methadone maintenance, therapeutic communities and other proven treatment modalities,” McCaffrey said in a prepared statement issued by his Washington, D.C., office. “Bangor, Maine, and the entire nation would be better off with less chronic heroin addiction.”

Acadia Hospital, a Bangor-based treatment center for mental illness and chemical dependency, applied in February for a license to operate a methadone clinic. The application was requested by the state’s Office of Substance Abuse, which has cited the area’s growing opiate addiction problem.

Methadone is a synthetic pain reliever used to wean addicts from heroin, painkillers and other opiates. It is addictive but does not produce a high, according to state drug officials, who say the drug allows addicts to live a normal life.

The proposal has sparked a heated debate in the community, with opponents questioning the treatment’s effectiveness and the clinic’s potential to draw addicts from around the state. Acadia Hospital estimates up to 150 addicts will be served by the clinic.

In an Aug. 3 letter to U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey, federal drug control policy officials dispute, point by point, many claims made by the prosecutor in his vocal opposition of the Bangor clinic.

Reached on Friday afternoon, McCloskey stood by his conclusions, many of which he said are based on the same reports cited by officials in the nation’s capital.

Specifically, the Aug. 3 letter refutes McCloskey’s assertions that methadone clinics are magnets for crime and cause drug use to increase, depicting the proposed clinic as a “farmers’ market for drugs.”

The letter cites studies that methadone treatment reduced heroin use by 70 percent and criminal activity by 57 percent while increasing full-time employment by 24 percent. McCaffrey’s office also cites the opinion of Winslow police Chief Michael Heavener, who has associated no increase of crime with the methadone clinic in that central Maine town.

McCloskey maintained Friday that those statistics are unreliable, as they are provided by opiate addicts themselves. The prosecutor also challenged the comparison to Winslow, and instead cited a rise in crime in the area of a methadone clinic in South Portland. Police in that city are not specifically able to link the increase in crime to the clinic.

“I think people have a lot of common sense, and they know the likelihood of crime will increase with more addicts moving to Bangor,” McCloskey said Friday.

The prosecutor has maintained that a methadone treatment center is not yet needed in the city, which has a relatively recent drug problem. He has called upon state officials to postpone the clinic’s arrival and give law enforcement and education efforts a chance to drive heroin out of the area.

But McCaffrey’s office says heroin is much more entrenched in Bangor than McCloskey lets on.

Instead of the 12 months to 18 months cited by the prosecutor, McCaffrey’s office contends the problem dates back to 1995. Since that time, Bangor has seen a fourfold increase in heroin and opiate use, according to those statistics.

The letter also disputes McCloskey’s characterization of methadone treatment as unreliable, citing the drug’s 30-year history and documented benefits for addicts.

McCloskey on Friday said he favored waiting for less addictive drugs such as Buprenorphine to come on the market before creating a new population of methadone addicts in the city. Buprenorphine has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but McCloskey said Friday that federal officals have suggested that the drug is expected to gain FDA approval by the end of the year.

The Bangor City Council on Monday will consider forming a committee with Acadia Hospital to review the area’s drug problem and the proposed clinic. The council also expects to hold another public forum on the issue. No date for the third forum has been set.