SANFORD — Sanford Police Chief Tom Connolly wants to open a treatment center in the city for opiate addicts in an attempt to address the growing heroin epidemic.

Connolly proposes spending $285,000 to provide a medication-assisted program that would treat 30 opiate addicts in Sanford each year. The money would come from existing state funds already earmarked for drug treatment.

Sanford’s police chief since 2007, Connolly is a firm believer that medication assisted treatment is the only one that works.

“Abstinence does not work for opiates,” he said bluntly in an interview in his office Monday afternoon.

Connolly was scheduled to appear before the Maine Legislature today in favor of medication-assisted programs such as the one’s he’s proposing in Sanford.

Connolly has years of experience dealing with narcotics. Prior to his arrival in Sanford, the Massachusetts-born law enforcement officer worked for 25 years at the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Police Department, where, among other jobs, he headed the Narcotic Enforcement Division. He earned a master’s degree in psychology in 2009.

As heroin has made its way to Maine in increas- ing numbers, Connolly has made it his business to learn more.

“I know that heroin actually changes the structure of the brain,” Connolly wrote in the book “Heroin: What You Need to Know and Why,” published in late 2015.

The 35-page book looks at heroin and its origins, how heroin makes its way to the United States, addiction and more. It has been distributed to Sanford schools, the emergency room at Sanford Medical Center and legislators, and is available at the Sanford Police Department.

“People don’t understand what this drug can do to you,” Connolly said. “It’s a process drug, its dangerous.”

If heroin itself doesn’t kill users, Connolly said, needles used to inject the drug makes them susceptible to HIV, Hepatitis C and other bloodborne illnesses.

“If you’re an addict,” he said, “your life becomes feeding your addiction.”

The program that Connolly plans to pitch to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew is among those proposed by the Mayor’s Coalition. The coalition is a group of eight Maine mayors who propose that about $2 million be used to fund programs in their communities, with the money coming from the existing $70-plus million Maine already spends on drug intervention.

Connolly’s proposal combines outpatient therapy with prescription buprenorphine. Applicants, who would be screened both by the police department and a medical provider, would be required to attend what Connolly described as intensive therapy several hours a day, several days a week, for nine weeks.

Attendees would be prescribed buprenorphine, also known as Suboxone. Those who complete the program would follow up with group or individual therapy once a week, drug testing and more.

“I want people (in the program) who really want to do this,” Connolly said. “I want people who really, truly want to quit.”

Connolly said if funding is approved, he’ll look for Sanford and Springvale addicts with some sort of a support structure, such as family living locally, someone who is working or looking for work, and perhaps someone with children – an added incentive to get and stay clean.

Connolly is working on a memorandum of understanding with Maine Behavioral Healthcare, which has a location in the Springvale village section of the city. The memorandum would state that MBH provide therapy and medical services.

Amy Safford, Maine Behavioral Healthcare’s spokeswoman, said the agency works as a partner with other municipalities.

Until mid-2015, Sanford was home to a methadone clinic, Spectrum Health Systems. The clinic closed its doors after 11/2 years because of a lack of state support, company officials said. It was the only methadone clinic in York County.

In a Dec. 30 report, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills said that through September, 71 deaths in the state were caused by heroin and 54 by fentanyl, a drug often mixed with heroin.

“Maine’s opioid epidemic continues to rage,” said Mills in the prepared statement. “This problem seems to have the attention of everyone but the users. I am heartened by the response I have seen from leaders in our state who all want to solve this problem.”

On Monday, however, there seemed to be cracks in a bill worked out by legislators that they were scheduled to take up today in public hearing. Maine House Republicans said they are looking for an examination of how state money for drug treatment – a figure they said is about $76 million – is being used.

“We need a thorough analysis of how that money is being spent in order to ensure those funds are being utilized in the most effective way before we consider spending any more money,” the Maine House GOP said in a statement on its web page.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.