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• Anonymous

  I’m guessing they’re federally funded? 
  If not, what the hell do the feds have to do with it?

• Anonymous

  “OCCUPY MAINE” will get lots of new members, or partissy-pants, or warriors, or whatever they call themselves

• Anonymous

  Bus them to Augusta!!

• Anonymous

  Obamacare

• Anonymous

  OMG.   I cannot believe this story. With all the drug situations going on in our state and these people are trying to get help and now this!!!!   THIS IS JUST WRONG………. Serious problems down the road…….

• Anonymous

  I’m sick and tired of being
  told that drug addicts have a “disease”, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder
  up their noses or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it
  off? I don’t think so. Hold them accountable for their own bad life choices, instead of making the working public pay for their bad decisions.  

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Regina-Hosebeast/100002095287763 Regina Hosebeast

  You’d feel differently if one of your own kids was being “jettisoned” onto the street after trying to get help. Drug addiction is so widespread and deeply rooted in all our communities and affects so many people from all walks of life, including yours. Abandoning them is just plain wrong.

  Save your anger for the drug dealers and smugglers. They deserve no mercy or compassion. I’d even help you string them up by the ankles and hang them from a bridge.

• Anonymous

  Hoss, You have a long way to go.  Are you in the 1%?  Do you, or anyone in your family have a drinking problem?  Try to learn.

• Anonymous

  Yes, I have a long way to go – every day – to get to my JOB – where I WORK for a living. Foreign concepts to your mind?

• Moose

  Drug addicts and drinking  is a choice in life that some people make and want someone else to feel sorry for them. I have been sober from drinking for 10 years and did not live in a homeless shelter. But most of  them with this disease  just pray on blaming someone else. So for you men and woman out there grow up. Stop blaming everybody else. Its you and you can fix it by 90 meeting in 90 days and keep going back.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Davida-Willette/100000655412147 Davida Willette

  well more gloom and doom the feds chop chop chop and more chop this winter 

• yowsayowsa1

   Nasty words that;
   JOB.
   WORK
   MIND.

• yowsayowsa1

  I hear rep Cynthia Dill over in Cape Elizabeth is hosting a soiree for her benefactor Roxanne Quimby.

   Maybe she also could find it in her heart to open her home for a dozen or so of these derelicts.

   Or maybe RQ could use her checkbook to open another “aht” gallary with enough beds for them.

  They are the 1%, after all.

• Anonymous

  If only the world were as simple as you think it is.

• Anonymous

  it amazes  me that cuts usually occur just as old man winter rears his ugly head.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XBTBBAU3DBWI32YKTDAGIDJLJA marcia

  Ahhh…what the article doesn’t say is some of those there are there to avoid going to jail. Maine Pretrial makes the deal with the court.

• Anonymous

  Bangor’s Hope House gets $60.00 per night from the Feds for the 80 people it is allowed to have due to fire code. $4,800/ night. Then they staff it w/ $8/hr people……….
  Anyone wonder where the rest of the money goes on top of all the grants they receive?

• Anonymous

  NO! Augusta will just bus them to Bangor and we’re the end of the line.

• Anonymous

  Are these shelters being reclassified simply to kick people out to save on cost? Or are they being re classified in order to do the most good? The Mental Health industry seems to have muckled on to the addicted. Is this because there is no cure for addiction, ie job security?

• TeaParty_aka_AmericanTaliban

  Addiction fits the definition of a disease, therefore it IS a disease.  There are actually a number of different conditions related to addiction that have specific listings in the DSM-IV, which is the standard by which diseases are identified in the medical community.

• TeaParty_aka_AmericanTaliban

  The physical act of drinking or using drugs is a choice, yes, but the fact that some people become addicted to substances while others don’t is a very clear indicator that addiction is a disease.  It took you a decade to stop, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy.  Many people who are addicts also have untreated mental illness they are self-medicated, so their addiction is even more pervasive and complicated.

• TeaParty_aka_AmericanTaliban

  They actually don’t get that much.  Up to 100 people a night stay there and they only get money for less than half of those beds.  They feed all of those people 3 meals a day and have a full clinical staff.  

• Anonymous

  wrong facts completely…follow the money

• Anonymous

  I grew up in a family of working alcoholics. Many times being embarrassed by the antics of some of them when drunk, was terrible and saying anything about it fell on deaf ears. I imagine being around drug users would be the same. Sad, but they all bring it on themselves, and many of them don’t want to get help. To cut funding for the ones that have been getting help and want help, is not the right way to go. Couldn’t some of the unused space at Dorothea Dix Hospital be utilized for drug users wanting to get off drugs? Use of drugs and alcohol certainly are diseases, bad ones.

• Anonymous

  Jeez, why aren’t the Lepage bashers somehow finding a way to blame him for this?

• Anonymous

  You obviously are not in touch with what it cost to run an operation of this magnitude.

• Anonymous

  I have a business with 30 employees that could function fine on $4,800 a day.(7x$4,800=$33,600 x 52=1,747,200 annually)
   Please explain the magnitude I am overlooking?

• Anonymous

  You may have an argument with alcohol, but not a great one. There is more than enough information out there to tell people to not do drugs or they will get addicted. If someone is still stupid enough to take them, then they are choosing their own fate.

• Anonymous

  Give them time, they will right after they blame Bush.

• Anonymous

  You’d think with all the empty homes out there and all the drug situations going on that our government or towns could find a way to turn these  homes into homes for homeless either with apartments or rooming houses. If people keep losing their homes they end up homeless but there is no place for them to go for help. No more section 8, no more government help at all. And yet you have to be EXPERIENCED  to “get a job”. There are PLENTY of jobs out there in the Bangor area. But seems like no one cares until a “bath salt individual” gets out of control then people seem to start to care because it could be your house the next time they get out of hand and want to trash someplace randomly. We need to all come together to help our own communities and start to look out for each other because the people that get elected can’t seem to help us out in times of need.

• Anonymous

  Could be worse I guess. They loose their place to go for help they may just end up under your  window in your shrub while you sleep at night on what ” bath salts”? I would rather they were all in one place where they could be accounted for than at “random locations” all over town……

• Moose

  Okay Thanks!!

• Anonymous

  “federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it had designated Milestone’s Portland facility…”
  A Republican mandated move, I’m sure…

• Anonymous

  Add a clinic to your business and see where your budget ends goes. I manage a budget many times what that is for about the same amount of people you have. Its all in what the expenses to operate are. Of course if you are a landscaping outfit hiring illegals then I can see your point.

• Anonymous

  Bill, you need to learn empathy towards your fellow human beings.  Your complete lack of knowlege about drug addiction is showing the world and Maine how you are an uncaring human.

• Anonymous

  This is a disgusting position for our federal gov to take. Obviously this facility needs federal monies to stay open.therefore the facility must follow certain guidelines. How can a facility like this put up an arguement against the federal regualtions? I would recommend sending everyone that needs a place to sleep a ticket, blankets etc and have them go sleep outside the facility where the stupid regulations are being made!!! We obviously need more money and better counseling for those with addictions. It’s time to spend some money on mental illness and help these folks. We Can’t leave them all homeless to starve to death. I understand we are becoming a third world country(Rich and Poor with nothing in between and the rich not giving a damn if the poor live or die) but I was born into a better country than that and a place that use to have hearts for those that were born less fortunate or have a mental illness that makes them less fortunate. So sorry for you folks that work there and with these folks that have no choice but to send them to the streets at night.

• Anonymous

  Full service restaurant w/ the lowest starting legal wage at $9.00/hr, insurances, utilities, rediculous property taxes, licensing, advertisement, inventories, vehicles, workers comp and 18 hr days.
  Walk me through a clinic’s costs and dont forget all the grant monies they get…………

• Anonymous

  Bill……….you are obviously uneducated when it comes to mental illness/addictions. These peoples minds don’t work appropriately so they take drugs to try to “feel normal.” MOST addicted people come from a very difficult background(maybe sexual assaults, emotional hardships, abuse, neglect, mental illness etc) the only moment they have that gives them a moment of peace is when they are high/drunk!! Unfortunately…..then they are hooked. YOU are possibly able to sit down in the evening and unwind with ONE drinks, these folks just can’t stop and then their brain addiction kicks in. There will always be people on earth that have to be helps by the society of folks without addictions, higher IQ’s, better paying jobs, inherited wealth etc. Those are the folks that are suppose to feel blessed and help the less unfortunate. In todays work the GOP(RICH), tea party etc will have YOU believe that the problems of society come from the poor and less fortunate, that way YOU don’t pay attention to their tax breaks, greed and heartless decisions so they can continue to rape the poor!!! Time for you too look at the stats of welfare and make an educated decision that those less fortunate are NOT why we are where we are today with a broken economy. It’s because the RICH/GOP have given themselves so many tax breaks and made so many cuts and sent jobs overseas(so they can reap more money) that the working class have NO jobs therefore pay no taxes and ……….hopefully you understand now.

• Anonymous

  as you know…………not everyone grasps that knowledge the first time through the door, so in the meantime………they need to be fed and kept warm

• Anonymous

  I agree one should make a livible wage(unionize!) but I’m sure the food, rent and whatever they pay the CEO takes a chunk! couldn’t the public see their books?

• Anonymous

  I think your employees all need a big raise!!

• Anonymous

  would you blame anyone for looking for job security. If one has to work, wouldn’t it be nice to be secure?

• Anonymous

  Thank you for your explanation. However, I still don’t buy it. My biggest beef is having to pay (through taxes) for people who choose a path of self destruction. My case in point would be that by virtue of your own definition of addiction, someone’s addiction to cigarettes is also a disease, even with their being fully aware of the potential consequences, along with the fact that it’s self inflicted. It is a path that they chose to take. So, does this mean that should a smoker contract lung cancer due to their addictive “disease,” the taxpayers should be held financially liable, where-as they are also forced to be held financially liable for a drug addict or alcoholic for the poor choices they made? I know I don’t want to foot the bill for their “disease”, and I’m sure you don’t either.

• Anonymous

  You too are obviously uneducated (reading comprehension), as my post has absolutely nothing to do with political affiliation. I refuse to discuss politics, as I vote for a given candidate, as opposed to the party they belong to. Send your political complaints to someone who cares; I am one who does not care.

• Anonymous

  I agree that they should all be in one place. As such, take them into your home. If they have the audacity to ignore my “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dogs” (the dogs of which are securely enclosed in a fence surrounding my home) signs, which are prominently displayed all around the fenced in area, then they have what’s coming to them. Incidentally, be prepared to deal with the following if you invite them into your home….and don’t send me a bill; deal with it yourself.

  http://www.kjonline.com/news/rockport-maine-teen-bath-salts-drugged-hospital-damage.html

• Anonymous

  I read the paper and watch the news. DRUGS are everywhere. I do not want them at my house!!! I am saying they need a place to and if they ask for help there are people trained to help them but to put them back out on the street when they have a place is wrong.  I don’t want to pay for their care any more than you. I just think they should all be together in one place and get them off the streets. On the streets mean more trouble!!

• Anonymous

  Wrong. My kids would not be “jettisoned” (to quote you) onto the streets if federal funding were to be diminished or entirely omitted for their treatment. If any of my 3 children needed help with addiction (which, by the way, is a non-issue), I would feel that I had failed as a parent and would take personal financial responsibility for their treatment if they were unable to afford it. I would not expect you, or any other taxpayers to have to pay for my errors as a failed parent.  Furthermore, you can’t blame it on the dealers or the smugglers; if the demand for drugs wasn’t present, the dealers and smugglers wouldn’t be delivering. That would be comparable to overweight people blaming forks and spoons for their obesity, or a murder victim’s family blaming Smith and Wesson for the fatality of their loved one. It’s all about accepting responsibility for your or your children’s actions.

• Anonymous

  Uncaring? Lack of empathy and knowledge? Given the fact that you don’t know me, let alone know anything about me, your totally idiotic reply warrants no further comment. Feel free to peruse my other comments.

• Anonymous

  Can somebody please explain why the feds felt it necessary to adopt this rule?  It seems to me that if this facility has the capacity to fill 43 beds they should be allowed to do so.  I don’t see anything in the article about  whether funding has also been cut but, again, if the facility has the resources to serve these 43 clients they should be allowed the flexibility to do so.

• Anonymous

  Here we go again- it’s the fault of the Tea Party.  I suppose George W. Bush handed out the crack pipes to these people.  It defies belief that you libs continue to squawk about the mean Republicans, despite the fact that the Democrats control two of three branches of government and had a super-majority for two years.