BANGOR – Jack is a successful salesman – articulate and neatly dressed. He’s also a father and a drug addict.

For 136 days, Jack – not his real name – spent the first three hours of his morning either in the car or waiting in line for his fix.

The daily drive to and from the Discovery House, a methadone clinic in Winslow, wore on the Bangor-area native – forcing him to brave the occasional blizzard and spend $60 a week on gasoline to take his daily dose of the drug he uses to ward off his craving for prescription painkillers, he said.

This morning, Jack will walk into a rear entrance at Acadia Hospital’s newly opened methadone clinic on Stillwater Avenue and be back into his daily routine in about five minutes.

And it’s more than a convenience, he said.

“It’s allowed me to go about my life like I don’t have the disease, and be treated with dignity,” he said of the opening of the Bangor methadone clinic, which dispenses the drug that curbs his craving for his former drug of choice, Percocet. “I can cope with stress, make business decisions and not constantly worry whether I’m going to have enough pills for tomorrow.”

Dating back more than a year, news of the Bangor clinic stirred a controversy like few seen in the city, pitting hospital officials against city leaders and local police wary of the effect of the drug clinic on the community.

Less than two weeks ago, the clinic’s staff quietly administered the first dose of the drug, used to wean addicts off heroin and other opiates – including the powerful prescription painkillers that had Jack firmly in their grasp for years.

“Rather than slip off to the local bar and have a double scotch after work, pain pills were my chemical of choice. There’s no difference. It’s an escape,” said Jack, who began his latest bout with addiction after being prescribed Demerol while recovering from an operation last year. “The only difference for me is that this drug got ahold of me so bad and didn’t let go.”

And on days when the pills ran out, Jack’s normal routine virtually stopped, he said.

“It’s like going to hell by way of the ‘Twilight Zone,'” he said of the painful withdrawal that can accompany opiate addiction.

An addict for about eight years, Jack is one of 26 clients – about 20 of whom transferred from Winslow – currently at the Bangor clinic, according to Scott Farnum, clinical supervisor for the narcotic treatment program at Acadia Hospital.

Farnum said the hospital expects to have 50 clients by the end of July, when the staff will evaluate the program’s effectiveness and its effect on the community before admitting any new patients, he said. The Acadia clinic is licensed to serve 150 people, but is currently staffed to serve only 50, he said.

Farnum said that treatment thus far was going very well at the clinic, which also offers counseling and other services for those addicted to opiates.

Anticipating a migration of drug addicts to the city, the clinic’s opponents – including local law enforcement and the state’s former top federal prosecutor – worry the clinic could attract a criminal element from outside the region.

Although police endorsed the hospital setting rather than the more isolated Acadia Recovery Community on Indiana Avenue, those worries remain among some community members.

“If half of them don’t make it, what have we gained?” asked Hempstead Avenue resident Charlie Murray, referring to the treatment’s 50 percent failure rate. “We’re into a whole different ballgame now, and it’s getting so we’re thinking it’s time to throw in the towel.”

A member of a local advisory group charged with assessing the clinic’s impact on the community, Murray said that while he supported drug treatment – although not methadone – he wanted more emphasis on education and prevention in the fight against the drug problem that has taken hold in eastern Maine.

The problem also has attracted the attention of Texas researcher Dr. Jane Maxwell, who, in conjunction with the advisory group, will study the clinic’s effect on the community.

Some local drug experts also have expressed their reservations about the treatment itself, which substitutes one addictive drug for another – often for a lifetime.

The only licensed, effective treatment for serious opiate addiction, however, methadone – which does not produce a “high” – has been widely used since the 1960s.

Jack said the drug, other than causing him some memory loss, has helped him return from his dangerous habit, which at its peak last year cost him $100 each day.

Although he acknowledges that there were clients at the Winslow clinic still using heroin, Jack also takes issue with the perception that crime follows a methadone clinic – especially in a hospital setting such as Acadia’s, he said.

“In reality, people come here looking to get better,” Jack said. “If anything, the availability of the drug prevents them from going to their dealers or resorting to crime.”

Thus far, Bangor police have had no reports of any crime associated with the clinic, according to Chief Donald Winslow.

And while some in the community still have their concerns, Jack, too, has his own – chiefly about the public’s perception of who uses the Acadia clinic.

“Who did you expect to meet today? Some biker with a bunch of tattoos?” Jack asked as he put on his sunglasses at the conclusion of the afternoon interview. “This disease makes no distinctions.”