Rockland council weighs methadone clinic zoning

ROCKLAND – The director of the state’s Office of Substance Abuse didn’t sway city councilors’ sentiments about a methadone clinic being proposed within city limits.

“I didn’t learn anything new,” Mayor Tom Molloy said Tuesday, commenting on Monday’s meeting with Director Kim Johnson.

On one hand, Johnson was saying there is a clear need for a methadone clinic. On the other, she said, “no community wants one of these programs.”

Molloy said councilors posed good questions to Johnson, who gave “pat answers.”

“Our problem is where to allow it rather than whether to allow it,” Councilor Brian Harden said Tuesday.

Molloy repeated a question he asked Johnson, “Why isn’t there a methadone clinic in Portland, Maine?”

Portland is the largest city in Maine, Molloy said, “That was the most telling.”

The reason Portland lacks a clinic is “no one wants to take Mike Chitwood on,” Johnson told councilors.

On Tuesday, Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood chuckled when asked about Johnson’s comment.

“I have battled with Kim for years,” he said, over for-profit methadone clinics.

“Their whole goal is to make money, and the state promotes this,” he said, pointing to drug abuse as the state’s biggest problem, and one which is often associated with crimes.

“Methadone has been around forever and a day,” he said, recalling his experience as a Philadelphia police officer 38 years ago. “It didn’t work.”

Rockland has its opponents, too, but there is an effort to open a clinic here, and the state has determined a need.

Initially, Turning Tide Inc., which is owned by Angel Fuller-McMahan, a self-described recovering heroin addict, and Marty Robbins, a counselor at Discovery House in South Portland, planned to open a clinic at 77 Park St. to serve an estimated 125 patients.

Intense opposition by residents has slowed those plans.

The 77 Park St. site is one-tenth of a mile from a Head Start school and backs residential properties.

A recent ordinance amendment by councilors defined clinics, making methadone clinics “sole-source pharmacies.” An attempt to restrict sole-source pharmacies to C-3 zones was delayed. The only C-3 zone in Rockland is on Route 90, a remote part of the city.

Opposition from Route 90 business owners and Turning Tide pushed the council to consider more location options.

On Monday, the council will vote in final reading to allow sole-source pharmacies in the C-3 zone and Plaza Commercial zones. The city has three PC zones – Harbor Plaza on Camden Street, the Maverick Street shopping center and the area near Wal-Mart on Camden Street.

Councilor Patricia Moran Wotton said Monday’s discussion brought her a better understanding of the methadone situation around the state, but she still thinks a hospital setting is the ideal location for a clinic.

Councilors would not say how they would vote Monday, except that it depends on whether the proposed ordinance changes are amended.