A Bangor methadone clinic’s plan to expand treatment is meeting resistance from some members of the city council and local residents.
Critics say Bangor is doing more than its fair share by offering treatment to 1,500 patients at three methadone clinics in the city, but substance abuse counselors say Bangor should be doing more to address addiction — not less.
Skeptics who might be inclined to question the need for an additional 200 methadone patient slots at the Penobscot County Metro Treatment Center need only review the waiting list of 173 people who want treatment for opioid addiction at the Bangor facility. James Harrison, director of the Colonial Management Group that oversees clinic operations, says the most of the demand is pretty close to home.
Harrison spoke at a public hearing on the plan Monday night.
“The majority of the patients on the wait list are residents of not only Bangor city — but also of Penobscot County,” Harrison says.
Geography was the dominant focal point of city council’s public hearing. And here’s why: Bangor already has three methadone clinics that are licensed to serve 1,500 patients. Some local residents say enough is enough, and that low-income patients are attracted to the city because it hosts a large Medicaid-subsidized clinic and funds a welfare and public transportation system that is nonexistent in northern and eastern Maine.
Bangor City Councilor Gibran Graham says its puts the city in the difficult position of deciding whether it can sustain a safety net for so many people who need help.
“There’s an understanding that there’s a growing number of individuals that are traveling to Bangor from great distance, whether it’s from Aroostook County or from other counties on even a daily basis for some of these methadone treatments,” he says. “We know that a lot of people have chosen to cut that travel by moving into Bangor from those places so that they can easily get that treatment on a regular basis.”
And some residents say the patients have changed the city — and not for the better.
“We just have too damn many around,” says Paul Graffam.
At 87, Graffam says he can remember when Bangor was just a “perfect city.” But now he says he’s afraid to go downtown at night because of people trying to score drugs. And he says the picture doesn’t improve when the sun comes up.
“I’ve had one in my backyard and the last six months that I had to call the police on, my next door neighbor did and [had] somebody in their backyard,” he says. “We didn’t have those things before, it just didn’t happen. We’ve got to do something about it.”
Bangor Police Chief Mark Hathaway has been asked by the city council to weigh in on Penobscot County Metro’s expansion request. The chief told the councilors that people desperate for methadone, who aren’t covered by insurance, will commit crimes to cover the cost of treatment.
“I’m not suggesting that every person that is suffering from addiction is a thief, that’s not true,” Hathaway says. “But we know that people do things when they’re in crisis that they would not do. That includes, go to Home Depot, steal $600 dollars’ worth of tools and equipment, return it for cash, because they need to visit the clinic.”
“Bangor is not incurring any more of a problem by allowing Colonial Management to expand,” says Jim LaPierre, an addiction counselor and executive director of Higher Ground Services across the Penobscot River in Brewer.
LaPierre says the Bangor City Council needs to look at treatment for opioid addiction the same way it assesses expansion needs for other health care service providers.