Crowding at Acadia Hospital’s narcotic treatment program and plans for a third methadone treatment facility in Bangor, as discussed in recent news stories, are powerful signs that this region – and all of Maine – must refocus on the problem of widespread drug abuse.

Maine paid attention when opioid abuse arrived in the 1990s, increasing treatment and law enforcement. But now the problem is worse. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Maine “continues to experience an increase in the availability of diverted pharmaceuticals. Oxycodone products such as Percocet, Roxicet and OxyContin are readily available.” Drug abuse is a leading cause of death in Maine.

Whether through the Bangor panel set up to consider drug-abuse issues, an addition to Acadia’s Close to Home opiate education campaign or through the City Council itself, Bangor should find new ways to provide the public with an accurate sense of the extent of the drug-abuse problem, its sources and what is being done about it.

As Dr. Paul Tisher observes, the demand for narcotics treatment, often methadone, has risen with changing pain-treatment patterns. Doctors have been told that they too often under-treat pain and as a result have increased the number of times they prescribe pain medication, expanding the potential number of those addicted and putting more drugs on the street. This isn’t a simple problem to solve, warns Dr. Tisher, who is the vice president and chief medical officer at Acadia. But one positive step, we believe, would be to educate the public about the rise of this problem. If nothing else, it could improve the way patients store and dispose of their prescription drugs.

Reports in this newspaper last month raised concerns expressed by clients about practices at Acadia’s treatment program, but a recent inspection by the state didn’t turn up the reported problems of drug dealing and fighting. The public generally and this newspaper specifically have recognized the importance of well-run methadone programs such as the one at Acadia and have repeatedly noted their necessity – their life-saving benefits are a quiet but crucial part of this region.

Acadia holds the 700 people in its treatment program responsible for their behavior, it says, reporting that it has discharged 60 clients over the years for drug use or dealing or physical assault. Its officials readily observe that they could use more space, and have begun a capital campaign to raise money for that purpose. Meanwhile, it is contemplating shifting the hours of clients who use take-home medication to alleviate congestion at the hospital, though this could not occur until it has hired more staff.

Acadia’s challenges, however, are a symptom and not the disease itself. A forum to focus on the disease of drug abuse shouldn’t require that Maine residents become experts in opioids. It would be successful if it provided information on the extent of the drug problem, the response from the medical community, and, most important, taught that drug abuse affects the entire community.