Title

The Bangor City Council has voted unanimously in opposition to plans to locate M

Authors

Meg Haskell

Source

Maine Times

Date

4-6-2000

Pages

11

Abstract

The Bangor City Council has voted unanimously in opposition to plans to locate Maine's third methadone treatment clinic in Bangor. The city council questions the effectiveness of methadone treatment, as well as the legal authority of the state to oversee its use. The existing methadone clinics, located in South Portland and Winslow, are owned and operated by the private, for-profit Discovery House of Providence, R. I., under the oversight of the Office of Substance Abuse. The impetus for a clinic at Bangor comes at the very time the state is moving to close the Winslow facility for repeated violations of treatment and documentation regulations. The Bangor clinic would be on the campus of the Bangor Mental Health Hospital and would be managed by Acadia Hospital. Bangor police chief Don Winslow, who fears that a methadone clinic will draw heroin users and dealers to Bangor, would prefer expanded law enforcement efforts to drive heroin out. Michael Chitwood, Portland's police chief, believes methadone simply perpetuates addiction and the clinics don't work over the long-term.

Subjects

Drug abuse Treatment, Methadone maintenance

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