BANGOR, Maine — Bangor’s city councilors aired concerns about Bangor’s outsized “burden” in addiction treatment Monday evening as officials representing one of the city’s three methadone clinics pitched an expansion proposal.
Penobscot County Metro Treatment Center, a methadone clinic in the Maine Square Mall on Hogan Road, has applied to expand its licensing cap from 300 to 500 patients. The clinic is operated by Colonial Management Group, which runs addiction treatment facilities across the country.
The demand is there. Penobscot Metro officials say they have a waiting list of about 180 people who want treatment. Councilors didn’t deny the need, but questioned where these people seeking treatment would be best served.
“Bangor is being disproportionately burdened,” said Councilor Joe Baldacci, adding that “treatment needs to be closer to people in their communities.”
Bangor, a city of about 33,000 residents, has three treatment centers licensed to serve up to a combined 1,500 clients. Each of those centers are operating at or near capacity.
Portland, South Portland and Westbrook have one center each, and those centers serve the same total number of patients as Bangor’s clinics, despite the fact that those communities have a combined population of nearly 110,000.
There is no methadone treatment facility north of Bangor.
“There’s clearly substance abuse problems in Aroostook and Washington counties and elsewhere,” said Councilor Ben Sprague. “We all believe in treatment, we just want it to happen in the right way.”
With addiction treatment comes public health and emergency services costs that Bangor has to support. In addition, much of the crime in the city is related to drug addiction, leading to an increased load on law enforcement, councilors have argued.
Penobscot Metro says 62 of its 300 clients live in Bangor, and another 65 come from nearby towns including Brewer, Hermon, Old Town, Winterport and Milford. The rest come from communities as far away as Aroostook County.
James Scully, facilities operations director for Colonial, said the corporation recently invested $600,000 in the treatment center, expanding it from 3,000 to 6,000 square feet. That expansion allowed the clinic to open up more queuing space, meaning people weren’t lining up outside in the morning, as well as more offices and meeting areas to accommodate the proposed expansion.
He said building a new facility elsewhere in the state could prove cost-prohibitive. Councilor David Nealley questioned why Colonial couldn’t look into redeveloping office or medical space in another community, or opening smaller treatment centers in more evenly spread locations across the state.
While Bangor debates the addiction issue locally, treatment advocates say recently proposed state rules could eventually force some treatment centers to shutter.
Holly Lusk, an Augusta-based lawyer and former senior health policy adviser to Gov. Paul LePage, is representing Colonial Management in their expansion bid. She said the group would bring more answers back for the next meeting with the city.
Drug abuse has become one of the region’s most pressing problems. Officials across the state have reported increasing rates of opioid overdoses, prompting a growing number of first responders to carry Narcan in order to save lives.
Narcan, however, does nothing to stem addiction. Treatment and counseling needs to follow, health care experts argue.
Debate persists over what and where that treatment should be.
Monday night’s meeting was an informational session. The city expects to hold a public hearing on the expansion proposal in early August before ultimately deciding whether to allow the expansion.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.