Bangor opiate panel discusses location, proposed delay

BANGOR – Members of the Special Committee on Opiate Addiction remained divided Tuesday over key issues surrounding a proposed methadone clinic planned for the city.

With full agreement a dwindling possibility, the panel divided itself into two subcommittees to look at a proposed delay in opening the clinic and the option of moving it elsewhere in the city.

The latter issue was foremost on City Councilor Patricia Blanchette’s mind.

“My top three issues are location, location, location,” said Blanchette, who questioned the clinic’s proposed site at the Acadia Recovery Community on Indiana Avenue near the former Dow Air Force base.

Instead of the remote facility, which treats only those with alcohol and drug problems, Blanchette recommended a more general medical setting where a patient’s problem could not be so easily pinpointed.

“The stigma is ‘there’s a druggie,'” Blanchette said of those who use the ARC facility. “But if I see you going into [Eastern Maine Medical Center], I never would dream why you were there … and should you have an addiction it’s none of my business.”

Acadia Hospital officials on Tuesday reiterated their preference for placing the clinic on Indiana Avenue, where the hospital already has the counseling and clinical services needed to accompany the methadone treatment.

Lynn Madden, Acadia’s vice president of administrative services, said that putting the clinic anywhere but ARC would require moving other services. Nonetheless, she said, hospital officials could “make another effort to look around the city.”

“Certainly we can do that again with the intent of seeing if there are any other physical options,” she said.

Acadia, at the request of the state Office of Substance Abuse, applied in February to operate the methadone clinic, which would use the synthetic narcotic to treat those addicted to heroin or other opiates, including prescription painkillers.

State substance abuse officials at the time pointed to a dire need in Bangor for the treatment option considering the region’s serious – and escalating – heroin and opiate addiction problem.

The plan quickly set off a debate in the community, with supporters defending the longtime treatment and opponents calling the clinic a magnet for drug addicts and drug-related crime.

With emotions in the community running high, state officials agreed to delay the licensing of the Bangor clinic until January 2001.

On Tuesday, Acadia officials questioned the need for any further delays.

“It’s very difficult for me to say they’re there but we don’t care,” Dr. Jack Adams, a member of the Acadia board of trustees and the opiate committee’s co-chairman, said of the addicts already in the community.

City Councilor Joseph Baldacci on Tuesday repeated his call for a one-year delay to give Acadia more time to implement the committee’s recommendations to help ensure a successful facility, he said.

Acadia officials maintained that the opening of the clinic, even if licensed next month, would not happen until April – essentially providing a four-month delay in addition to the delay earlier granted by the state.

Local prosecutors and police have called for a two-year moratorium to give law enforcement time to drive the heroin problem from the area.

“There’s no question that adding a clinic at this time would place a demand on the city’s law enforcement resources,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Wing, who suggested that a clinic’s opening should coincide with an increased Drug Enforcement Agency presence supported by the committee.

The committee was to have its final report finished by Friday. However, after agreeing to an extension, the committee will again meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, in the City Council chambers.

The dates and times of subcommittee meetings will be released later this week.