Turn over Bangor ballot for 1

• Published in: Bangor daily news
• Main Author: Murray, Charlie
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bangor, Me Bangor Daily News 25.10.2000
• ISSN: 0892-8738; 2643-7457

Everyone acknowledges that methadone has at best a 50 to 80 percent failure rate. In its first year, Acadia will be licensed to serve 150 addicts a day but will not be limited to that amount. The management at Acadia has stated they will not treat any addict who lives more than an hour's drive from Bangor, therefor many addicts will be required to move to the Bangor area to be served. When the projected 50 to 80 percent of those addicts fail, they will stay in Bangor and will be replaced in Acadia's program by more addicts. Does the community benefit? Remember last spring, the state announced they were closing the clinic in Winslow necessitating a clinic in Bangor? The Winslow clinic still remains open and will remain open. Then furthermore, it is within an hour's drive of Bangor which Acadia has stated is a reasonable distance to travel for treatment. Yet Acadia persists its plan to locate the methadone maintenance clinic on the west side of Bangor. When asked if Acadia considered the impact on Bangor's west side neighborhoods, an Acadia administrator said only peripherally. Should Bangor's residents being only peripherally important? Is it relevant that the chairman of the Board of Eastern Maine Healthcare is not a Bangor resident, nor is the CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare, nor are many of the Board Members of Eastern Maine Healthcare and Acadia Hospital nor is the Acadia administrator of this proposed clinic? Is that why quality of life in Bangor is only peripherally important?