VERNON FERREIRA, JR. was 27 years old with a baby on the way when he decided it was time to finally kick the drug addiction that had plagued him for years. Ferreira was living with his father at his grandfather’s house in Carver, working with his dad in construction, and fixing and selling cars. “He […]
Drugs
Posted inDrug Addiction
‘Nips’ talk lands at State House
“NIPS” — THE SMALL liquor bottles that some see as an inexpensive blessing while others deem a public health issue and litter nuisance — have found their way into discussions at the State House. While one Massachusetts community has gone as far as to ban the sale of nips, a legislative committee heard testimony yesterday […]
Posted inOpinion
Sometimes it makes sense to jail addicts
NO SENSIBLE PERSON wants to “punish addiction” or needlessly imprison addicts. But this is precisely what some accuse the criminal justice system of doing when courts incarcerate addicted criminals who violate their condition of probation or parole by returning to drugs. In a recent editorial, the New York Times claimed that relapsing shouldn’t be a crime because addiction […]
Posted inOpinion
Why supervised drug injection sites make sense
SINCE 2000, 17,496 citizens of Massachusetts have died from an opioid overdose. Half of those deaths came in the last five years. That’s like one of at least 245 communities in the Commonwealth disappearing in 19 years. Enough people in Massachusetts have died from an opioid overdose to fill all but 69 of the seats […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Rate of growth in Mass. opioid deaths slows
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICERWE THE RATE OF DEATHS due to opioid overdoses is slowing in Massachusetts, but still nearly 1,500 people died of an overdose in Massachusetts through the first nine months of the year, the state announced Monday. The 1,460 confirmed or suspected opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts between January and September represent a […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Time for action on safe consumption facilities
WITH FIVE MASSACHUSETTS residents dying from overdose every day, our Legislature must move quickly to implement additional lifesaving tools to address the overdose crisis. The recent decision by a federal judge in favor of a Philadelphia non-profit seeking to open a supervised consumption facility (SCF) (United States v. Safehouse) should catalyze such action. Safe consumption […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
No welcome wagon for sober houses
IT”S BECOME INCREASINGLY popular to talk about addiction problems as a public health issue, with those suffering from the problem in need of help, not scorn or jail. Much less popular is the idea of that help being delivered next door. Especially when that means packing the programs into communities that feel they already do […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Healey outlines refusal to settle Purdue Pharma lawsuit
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY says she plans to continue to aggressively pursue litigation against Purdue Pharma, the company that made billions selling prescription painkiller OxyContin, despite the company filing for bankruptcy on Sunday, and its reaching a settlement worth billions with many state and local governments last week. Healey said at a press conference Monday she refuses to take part in […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Walsh lays out his vision for Long Island
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH took a police boat full of reporters and photographers out to Long Island on Wednesday afternoon to try to show them what he sees there. Amid a ghost town of 18 buildings that have been largely vacant since October 2014 and cut off from the mainland since the unsafe Long Island […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Supervised drug use proponents trudge onward
MARYLOU SUDDERS, the governor’s secretary of health and human services, led a state commission that concluded supervised drug consumption sites would be useful tools for Massachusetts because they prevent overdose deaths and stem the spread of disease. But it’s never been clear how far she would go to launch the sites, given that US Attorney […]