Opiate committee gives final analysis

BANGOR – The City Council’s Special Committee on Opiate Addiction took its last look Tuesday at preparations for the arrival of a methadone clinic planned for the city.

The committee, which will re-form as an advisory group for the program, looked at progress on six fronts previously identified by the panel as needing to be addressed before the clinic will be allowed to open.

On at least one front, the panel had some hard and fast answers, with Acadia officials settling on a new location, confirming Monday that they would look to locate the program temporarily at the hospital’s main campus on Stillwater Avenue.

In its original application, the hospital listed the Acadia Recovery Community on Indiana Avenue as the site for the clinic, news of which sparked an often heated debate in the community.

The west side site also had drawn fire from city and police officials, who pushed for the treatment to be offered in a larger and more general medical setting.

The Stillwater Avenue location still must gain approval from state and federal licensing agencies.

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

Opponents of the clinic have cited the possibility of hard-core addicts moving to the city and committing drug-related crime to support their habits should they leave treatment.

The tensions that thus far have marked the debate over the clinic spilled over into Tuesday’s meeting as a handful of residents questioned the committee on topics ranging from the need for more police protection to how some of the panel’s recommendations would be funded.

Among the recommendations in its final report, the committee suggested that before the clinic open its doors, a drug education and prevention program should be in place, as well as a procedure for the hospital to share information with police.

The committee also recommended that the community advisory group be formed to continually assess the clinic’s operation at the Acadia site.

On Tuesday, the opiate panel looked to recruit a representative from one of the neighborhoods surrounding the Stillwater Avenue facility to help gauge community impact on the area.

Acadia officials have estimated that once they reactivate their application, the clinic could open in four to six months.

The first meeting of the community advisory group is scheduled for 5 p.m. Feb. 20.