Bangor officials debate limits on methadone clinics

BANGOR – Though the issue doesn’t draw the large crowds it used to when The Acadia Hospital was gearing up to open the first methadone clinic in the city almost eight years ago, the controversial treatment still generates debate.

With three methadone clinics now operating here, many local officials think Bangor has done more than its share to ensure that those who need it have access to treatment for addiction to opiates.

A discussion Tuesday night regarding a proposal to place limitations on methadone clinics drew all eight city councilors to the council’s government operations committee meeting as well as a handful of city administrators and about a dozen supporters and opponents of the clinics.

After a couple of hours of debate Tuesday, the committee agreed to forward to the full council Councilor Richard Stone’s proposal that includes three provisions:

. Limit the number of methadone clinics in Bangor to the existing three.

. Cap each clinic’s patient load to the number of patients they now are licensed to treat.

. Establish an application process that includes public comment for expanding the number of patients a clinic may treat. The process would allow the city to consider the geographic locations of current and potential patients and allow it “to deny the application if it determines that there is sufficient patient demand to warrant a treatment facility in an area geographically closer to current and potential future patients.”

Stone earlier had said he was worried that Bangor was on its way to becoming Maine’s “dumping ground” for methadone clinics.

Also being forwarded to the council as a result of Tuesday’s meeting is a second proposal that would allow additional clinics in the city, but only if the need could be determined through an application process.

Both versions will go before the full council during its next regular meeting set for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25, at City Hall.

During debate Tuesday, City Manager Edward Barrett said he didn’t think Stone’s proposal would limit anyone’s ability to get treatment.

“I don’t see this as us closing the door,” he said. “I see this as us saying let’s look at what the best solution is for people who need this treatment, and in some cases, this may mean a clinic in Ellsworth, a clinic in Rockland or a clinic in Millinocket.”

Bangor’s discussion has been prompted by a growing number of Maine cities and towns that are taking steps to make it difficult, if not impossible, for methadone clinics to operate in their communities.

Last December, the city of Ellsworth, where there are no methadone clinics, enacted both zoning restrictions and a 30-patient enrollment cap, effectively derailing any future methadone programs.

In neighboring Brewer, city councilors Tuesday night imposed a 180-day emergency moratorium on methadone clinics.

Barrett again Tuesday expressed the city’s frustration over the state’s lack of leadership concerning where methadone clinics are permitted to set up shop in Maine. Though the state has a lengthy and detailed certificate of need process for hospitals and many of the services they provide, no such procedures are in place when it comes to locating methadone clinics and little chance of seeing them anytime soon.

“One of the guiding principals of the [study and report on opiates addiction] that we did with Acadia back in 2001 – and since then – has been the necessity for treatment to be located as close as possible to the patient,” Barrett said. “We supported alternative treatment that can be offered by doctors in their offices, and we certainly urged the state to work toward locating treatment clinics across the state.”

While the state has not taken any action, Barrett pointed out other communities have established ordinances that he felt violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Barrett said Bangor asked the state Attorney General’s Office to take a look at one of the particular ordinances “and the answer we [got was], ‘Not our problem.'”

“But there’s only so much we can do,” Barrett said. “As I see this, this is kind of a wake-up call addressed, I think, to the treatment community and the state that there is a growing problem in this state with communities closing their doors and refusing to recognize that [opiate addiction issues exist in their own backyards].”