CALAIS TREATMENT CENTER

Calais community leaders may have legitimate questions and concerns about the proposal by California-based American Hope Charities to establish a residential drug treatment center in that city. The organization does not have an extensive track record, and the facility it hopes to open in Maine will have little oversight from the state.

But the fact that the proposal is a treatment center for addicts should not be high on the list of concerns. Drug and alcohol addiction is clouding Washington County’s future – as it is for other parts of Maine – and, like the problem, the cure must be locally based.Dr. Jorge Rivera-Bernal, the CEO of American Hope Charities, says his proposal for Calais is fully funded through federal funds and private donations. If it can find acceptable terms for use of a building and hiring staff, the center will employ 234 and treat 80. Dr. Bernal stresses that his program is unlike others. It will provide yearlong stays for clients and rely on medically proven methods, yet it will be driven by Christian faith-based principles. Each client will have a full-time mentor, and two or three others – probably part-timers who will work a few hours each day – to assist with recovery. The center will welcome those who truly want to recover from addiction, Dr. Bernal said, and will not use what he described as the “incarceration model” favored by other treatment programs.

Nine-month to yearlong stays in residential treatment centers, some say, are the only effective way to break opiate addiction. A previous proposal for a treatment center at the former Cutler naval facility would have used this model; that proposal was opposed by residents of the area, and it did not come to fruition. Guy Cousins, acting director of the state Office of Substance Abuse, said Maine does not now have any yearlong – or even monthlong – residential treatment centers. But he has not seen any studies that show such approaches are more effective than various outpatient treatments.

The news that a drug and alcohol treatment center will open in a community tends not to generate the same sort of enthusiasm that a new call center or manufacturing business does. If the AHC center does open, don’t expect a ribbon-cutting ceremony with dignitaries on hand. But such centers can be understood as part of the growing health care sector of the economy.

Drug and alcohol addiction is a health care problem that, unlike diabetes, lung cancer or heart disease, disproportionately affects men and women under the age of 40. Instead of becoming educated, developing a good work ethic and employable skills, many young people have their feet stuck in the quicksand of addiction. And that cripples economic growth and ruins lives and families.

“Communities are often in denial when there are substance use-abuse problems,” Mr. Cousins said, “believing that it happens in other places to other people.” Successful treatment, though, makes for a more reliable work force, which has a positive economic affect, he added.

“Our desire is not to change the world,” Dr. Bernal said, “but to change a small number of people.” That’s not a bad goal.