ELIZABETH MURDZIA, who stopped using heroin during pregnancy with the help of methadone, remembers rocking her newborn as he underwent methadone withdrawal at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Murdzia, 29, was terrified he would be taken from her because in Massachusetts, opioid use during pregnancy triggers a child welfare investigation. One nurse told her – […]
Drugs
Posted inDrug Addiction
Mass. receives $525m under opioid settlement
BOSTON UNIVERSITY STATEHOUSE PROGRAM STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS in Massachusetts will receive $525 million to combat opioid abuse as part of a settlement with four of the nation’s largest drug distributors. The funds represent the Massachusetts share of a $26 billion settlement with drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson. Of the total, […]
Posted inOpinion
Opioid overdose deaths remain stubbornly high
IT IS MY HOPE that one day this public health crisis will be nothing but a memory. It has sickened and killed far too many, torn families apart, and weakened communities. I write not about the COVID-19 pandemic – I hope that becomes a memory, too – but of the opioid overdose epidemic that has […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Misinformation is fueling the overdose crisis
AS THE TOLL from COVID-19 continues to climb, health misinformation has taken an increasingly visible role in stoking this deadly pandemic. Rumors and politicization of masks, vaccines, and other basic prevention measures are costing lives, while straining already threadbare health care resources. When it comes to America’s other historic public health crisis—drug overdose—the role of […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Removal of Mass. and Cass encampment long overdue
BOSTON MAYOR Michelle Wu’s plan to clear tents from the Mass. and Cass homeless camping site by January 12 is long overdue. If only it had been done earlier, the move could have averted a humanitarian crisis. Many believe the encampment has grown merely because the people there lack shelter. The city had claimed it […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Bill would let Tompkins hold men solely for substance use treatment
SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF Steven Tompkins could get permission to treat people civilly committed for substance use disorders in the Suffolk County jail, under a bill pending before the Legislature that is adding to the controversy already swirling around Tompkins’s role in cleaning up “Mass. and Cass” — the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Drug Addiction
A fix for the crisis at Mass. and Cass?
ACTING MAYOR Kim Janey declared last week that Boston will move to dismantle the tent city of homeless people that has grown in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. Janey’s announcement that shelter beds will be found for everyone whose tent is taken down came on the heels of a proposal from […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Key flashpoints in debate over ‘supervised consumption sites’
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, Massachusetts lawmakers have been bandying about the idea of authorizing “supervised consumption sites” – locations where someone could use illicit drugs under medical supervision to prevent fatal overdoses. These sites could offer such services as clean needle exchanges and referrals to substance abuse treatment. The goal is to prevent deaths from drug overdoses and illnesses from unclean needles, while providing drug […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
SJC upholds $21m verdict against Phillip Morris
MASSACHUSETTS” HIGHEST COURT on Wednesday upheld a $21 million jury verdict that cigarette company Phillip Morris will have to pay the family of a Lynn man who died from smoking-related illness. The ruling could potentially smooth the way for other wrongful death lawsuits from families of smokers, some of which are already being litigated in […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
The ‘other crisis’ keeps on chugging along
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PRELIMINARY DEPARTMENT of Public Health data show 1,038 people died of opioid overdoses in the first six months of this year, an estimated 5 percent decrease from the same time period in 2020. The preliminary data, presented by Acting DPH Commissioner Margret Cooke at a Public Health Council meeting Wednesday, includes […]