Opiate panel continues work Prosecutor pushes for delay

BANGOR – The Special Committee on Opiate Addiction on Tuesday agreed in principle when and where methadone treatment for opiate addiction could be offered in the city.

However, pending a new report from local law enforcement officials, the committee postponed final approval of its report until next week.

On Tuesday the committee, comprising three members each from the City Council and the Acadia Hospital board of trustees, agreed to recommend to state licensing officials that the clinic open, but only after several conditions are met.

The conditions include the establishment of a community advisory group that would help shape and evaluate the program’s operation.

The hospital, which applied in February with the state Office of Substance Abuse to operate the clinic, must also establish a plan to cooperate with police, make final the clinic’s location, and help establish a group to develop education curriculum about heroin and opiate addiction.

Local law enforcement officials at Tuesday’s meeting, however, wanted stricter guidelines surrounding the clinic’s opening. In coming days, the group is expected to submit an additional report outlining the reasons for a delay in the opening of the clinic.

U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey, joined by several members of local law enforcement, asked the committee to delay the clinic until the state agrees to fund additional drug agents to handle the expected influx of addicts to the city, he said.

McCloskey also told the committee that recent conversations with police in other New England communities revealed more problems associated with methadone clinics, including a rise in prostitution.

“Education and law enforcement have to be in place,” McCloskey said. “To put the cart before the horse will result in the problem getting greater.”

Officials at the state Office of Substance Abuse last year cited the region’s rising drug problem in its decision to offer the methadone treatment in the city.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat those addicted to heroin and other opiates such as prescription painkillers.

Opponents also cite the pending approval of less addictive alternative drugs as a reason to delay the methadone clinic.

Acadia board member Clif Eames on Tuesday said a further delay in the clinic’s opening based on funding issues out of the city’s control would be detrimental to the city’s existing and significant addict population.

“There is some law enforcement and education – inadequate to be sure – already out there, so how will we know when we have enough?” Eames asked. “The patients are out there now … and they need treatment.”

The committee agreed to include the latest law enforcement report as an addition to the committee’s full report.

The panel also agreed that the clinic initially should be located at a site other than the remote Acadia Recovery Community on Indiana Avenue. Acadia officials on Tuesday said they were looking at several locations throughout the city including Acadia’s main Stillwater Avenue campus.

City officials are likely to continue to press for a general medical setting, such as Acadia’s main campus or the Eastern Maine Healthcare Mall on Union Street, so addicts cannot easily be identified and targeted by drug dealers.

The committee, set up by a City Council order, was scheduled to dissolve on Jan. 1. However, the council, is expected to extend the committee’s work until Jan. 31 so it can address any outstanding issues.

The committee will next meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 26, in the City Council chambers at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.