CALAIS (AP) – A company that operates for-profit methadone clinics in South Portland and Winslow wants to open another clinic in this city in far eastern Maine.

Discovery House, based in Providence, R.I., is looking for a 1,400-square-foot facility that would become the first outpatient methadone clinic in Washington County.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat those addicted to heroin and other opiates, including the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which has plagued rural Maine in recent years.

At a public forum Friday to discuss the plan, the majority of those who spoke opposed a clinic, saying it would do more harm than good.

Calais resident Ellie Tibbetts wanted to know if residents would have the final say.

“Are the residents of Calais, Maine, going to have a chance to vote on this as to whether or not they want a methadone clinic in this area?” she asked.

Discovery House’s plan to open a clinic in Calais stems from work begun years ago by a coalition of health care providers and community leaders.

After losing out on federal funding for a clinic, advocates turned to the private sector.

Discovery House is now searching for a building and hopes to hire eight full- and part-time employees that would include clinicians and medical personnel. It also plans to work closely with the Regional Medical Center at Lubec to offer a holistic approach to a patient’s care.

Kim Johnson, director of the state Office of Substance Abuse, said some 60 addicts in eastern Maine travel hours for treatment at clinics in Bangor, Waterville and Portland.

“I am sure you know if you have to drive for any medical care, you have to drive huge distances, and you can’t live a normal life,” Johnson said. “What we need is to get them back to work, back to taking care of their families, not spending a whole day getting their medication.”

State Rep. Anne Perry, D-Perry, who is a nurse practitioner, said an outpatient clinic would allow people to get treatment in their own community.

“We’ve got to have the behavioral therapy that goes with it,” she said. “We’ve got to have the family counseling that goes with it. We’ve got to help these addicts become real people again.”

Dr. Christine White, a psychiatrist who treats patients in Eastport and Princeton, said methadone was a viable treatment, but that Discovery House is putting the cart before the horse.

“It is just not the right time or the right place in Washington County because we are under-resourced medically,” White told the forum. “They need to provide a continuum of care that they are talking about, which includes residential treatment, day treatment, more 12-step meetings and more of an addiction education for the whole community.”

A clinic would need site plan approval from the planning board before it could open and would have to be located in a commercial zone.

AP-ES-03-13-04 1204EST