City must address opiate issue

Last week’s announcement that a third methadone clinic was expected to open in Bangor seems to have been met with a stunning level of indifference, perhaps because the proposed location in an industrial park is far from residences and retail businesses or maybe because the other two treatment centers already operating in the city have not produced obvious problems, such as drug dealing and loitering in parking lots, as many residents originally feared.

Considering the extraordinary level of controversy surrounding the opening of the other two facilities in the city and in other communities where clinics have tried to open, the apparent lack of interest in last week’s news gave me pause.

There are 700 opiate-addicted patients currently receiving treatment at Acadia Hospital and an additional 60 on the waiting list. At the nearby Colonial Management Group’s clinic on the Hogan Road, 150 people are receiving methadone treatment. A spokesperson for the Discovery House, which hopes to open in the former Reid’s Confectionery building on the Dowd Road, said she expects the agency will serve about 200 patients during its first year.

Even without the opening of the third clinic in the spring Bangor is the only community in Maine to house more than one methadone treatment facility. There are only seven across the whole state.

The Discovery House already operates clinics in South Portland, Calais and Waterville. The spokesperson said the firm was coming to Bangor to answer an unmet need.

I suppose no one should be surprised since eastern Maine has the worst per capita opiate addiction rate of any state in the nation, according to Acadia president Dottie Hill.

Despite the growing number of clinics and a continuing barrage of media stories about the scourge of opiate addiction and the toll it is taking on the state, the addiction problem continues to rise.

“I wouldn’t have predicted three years ago that the numbers of those seeking opiate treatment would still be rising, but they are,” said Kim Johnson, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse.

Johnson hopes that the area’s opiate addiction problem may reach its peak in a couple of years.

I hope she’s right because one has to wonder how many more methadone clinics we are going to need to meet the rising need for treatment.

The fastest growing age population seeking treatment at Acadia are users between the ages of 18 and 24. Statistics show that addicts have been using for a few years before they seek treatment, which means that teens are using opiates at younger and younger ages.

Opiate education needs to start at a younger age in our community. The Close To Home Campaign launched in November by Acadia Hospital and a number of local and regional partners is an attempt to offer that education to individuals, families and schools.

The only way this region is going to finally get a grip on this problem is by combining education, treatment, prevention and enforcement.

Middle schools and high schools need to be an integral and aggressive part of that equation. The newest addicts are coming from their ranks.

Granted, school staff have enough on their plate, but there are agencies such as Acadia and campaigns like Close To Home that can offer schools the resources and personnel they need to get the alarming statistics and information about opiate abuse to their students.

Ironically, while Bangor readies itself for its third methadone clinic, Bangor High School to date has been reluctant to allow Acadia Hospital or any other outside agency to work closely with staff to aid them in teaching their students about the dangers of opiate use. The Bangor school system continues to refuse to allow its students to participate in a state-run drug abuse survey. Most of the state’s other major schools choose to participate and survey results are used by the Office of Substance Abuse in helping to track drug trends and direct prevention and education resources.

BHS Principal Norris Nickerson said this week that BHS teaches the dangers of opiates in its health classes and some science classes, but does not generally allow experts in the field into the school to address the student body.

In what is considered by some a major step, the head of the school’s science department apparently has convinced administrators to allow Acadia officials to meet with BHS chemistry teachers and begin the groundwork to allow those same officials to meet directly with the chemistry students.

That is a big step for Bangor but it’s not enough. Residents, parents and City Council members should insist that the Bangor School Department take a proactive approach on this issue. Other schools in the area, such as those in East Millinocket, Hermon and Hampden, willingly accept the help offered them by outside agencies, and Bangor should not only accept it, but seek it out.

The message of the Close To Home campaign is that opiate addiction affects entire communities, not just individuals. Schools are a crucial part of any community and must step up to the plate before the fourth clinic comes to town.