Bangor methadone clinic causing city little trouble

BANGOR – The city advisory committee determined Wednesday that not much had changed with the Penobscot County Metro Treatment Center, a methadone clinic in the Maine Square Mall on the Hogan Road, since the committee last met in May.

The clinic, which provides a synthetic narcotic called methadone to treat heroin and other opiate addictions, treats 102 patients.

That number has gone up over the last three months by about 30 people, but still stays within the 250 patient maximum that the clinic was licensed to serve.

“It’s not a fast growth and as far as we’re concerned we are right where we are supposed to be with the projected numbers,” Rosaire Dubois, the Penobscot County Metro Treatment Center’s program director, said.

Patients who are allowed to take their dose of methadone outside the clinic were of particular concern to panel members, who questioned if the procedure increased the availability and abuse of methadone on the street.

Although methadone is available on the street, it is usually in pill form and Bangor’s center only distributes liquid methadone, according to Dr. Elizabeth Weiss, the center’s medical director, who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

Bangor Deputy police Chief Peter Arno, also present, said that in the majority of cases his department handles involving the abuse of methadone, the drug is obtained by prescription from a medical practitioner, not a methadone clinic.

Weiss said that although federal guidelines state that a patient must receive at least one hour of counseling a month to receive methadone doses, a typical patient sees a clinic counselor at least once a day and is still subject to drug testing. Methadone abuse is curbed by those guidelines, she said.

Crime related to the clinic opening in November 2005 has been slim, and Arno reported that police have not received any complaints from the clinic’s neighboring tenants.

The Maine Office of Substance Abuse, in collaboration with several methadone clinic staff and patient advocates, is working to create state guidelines for clinics, according to Paul McFarland, associate director of the state’s Office of Substance Abuse, who joined the meeting by telephone.

McFarland said the office hopes to complete a draft of the guidelines by late September. Bangor’s advisory committee, which is the only one of its kind in the state, will then be able to review the document and contribute its ideas.

“The committee has become a positive thing and that’s good for the community,” Dubois said. “It’s a good vehicle for communication.”