AUGUSTA – A state committee has recommended an act be passed on to the Legislature, which if approved, would increase state and local regulation of methadone clinics.
The Committee on Health and Human Services split their approval of the bill Tuesday night, which was submitted by local officials after a business called Discovery House started scoping out locations for a possible methadone clinic. Methadone is used to treat people addicted to drugs such as heroin and OxyContin.
Amy Harmon, the committee clerk, said the majority of the 13 committee members present voted that the act ought to pass. The dissenting vote came from Rep. William Walcott, D-Lewiston.
Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland, voted to pass the act but with a different amendment.
Norway Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said Tuesday night that Glynn proposed that municipalities instead of the state be allowed to license methadone clinics, much like they do bars.
But Gray said this amendment is unlikely to be supported.
Much of the heat around this issue comes from trying to balance between giving these clinics the freedom to run as health care businesses and giving the municipalities the power to influence where they are built and how they operate.
After negotiating last week and again Tuesday with the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, which oversees substance abuse services, the Oxford Hills group behind the bill dropped some initial demands – like more physician oversight and security – to push for others.
These include determining the need for methadone service in an area, more counseling for patients, and allowing public input in licensing renewals, according to Gray.
Gray said, too, that the bill had been turned into a resolve, which he said is as good as a bill. “Six of one, half a dozen of another,” he said.
A resolve means that the action of changing licensing procedures for methadone clinics would be passed directly to the Office of Substance Abuse, which would amend its rules according to any resolutions approved by the Legislature.
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