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A proposal to ban new syringe service programs, needle exchanges and chemical dependency treatment facilities being opened in Bangor didn’t make it out of committee Monday.
City Councilor Carolyn Fish brought forward a 180-day moratorium, or ban, on syringe service programs, needle exchanges and chemical dependency treatment facilities being opened in Bangor to the council’s Business and Economic Development Committee Monday evening.
The proposed ban, which was voted down in a 2-3 vote, would not have restricted how current facilities operate, but wouldn’t have allowed any new ones to open.
Fish’s proposal comes while Penobscot County is grappling with an HIV outbreak that primarily affects people who inject drugs and are homeless. Syringe distribution has been recognized by public health officials as an effective strategy to reduce HIV transmission.
The moratorium, which Fish said took a year and a half to draft, wasn’t intended to change how Needlepoint Sanctuary or Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, two syringe service programs in Bangor, operate, but to show other communities and stakeholders that they need to take accountability for their residents who use Bangor’s resources, she said.
Putting the ban in place could show state and local officials that they need to build and fund their own services instead of sending their residents to Bangor, Fish said.
“I hope doing this will get the state’s attention and other communities’ attention to work with us and have other methadone clinics that are closer to Aroostook County and in rural areas that need them. The city of Bangor doesn’t need to have them all, and if we do, we need to have that collaboration,” Fish said.
Bangor is a service center for many surrounding communities and northern Maine residents. Many communities send people to Bangor to use syringe service programs or needle exchanges, but they aren’t paying for it like Bangor is, Fish said.
The validity of the moratorium was quickly questioned by other councilors who said the ban could cause Penobscot County’s HIV outbreak to grow and could lead to the city being sued, like it was in 2016 for not allowing a methadone clinic to expand.
Jennifer Gunderman, director of public health and community services, spoke with councilors during the meeting and didn’t share if she supported the ban or not, but did say it would restrict how Bangor’s services could respond to the ongoing HIV outbreak.
“It does make me a little nervous that we’re going to have a restriction when we have this really important tool that’s evidence-based to address HIV,” Gunderman said.
Willie Hurley, executive director of Needlepoint Sanctuary, said during the meeting that organizations like his already have to secure 80% of their own funding, making it difficult to open a service, even without a ban.
Councilors Susan Faloon, Joseph Leonard and Michael Beck were wary of the ban because of how it could restrict how current services are running and how it may lead to the city being sued. The three voted against it while Fish and Councilor Wayne Mallar voted in support.
Tabling or moving forward with the ban would show residents who are finding syringes on sidewalks or on playgrounds that the council is trying to solve the “out of control” problem of syringes being scattered across the city, Fish said.
Beck and Leonard said they want to talk with local community officials and look into additional funding from the state during later meetings, but didn’t want the moratorium to be the catalyst for the conversation in upcoming meetings.
“I would like to have the conversation further, but I don’t want this over our head,” Beck said.