HEALTH OFFICIALS have identified a growing cluster of 134 HIV cases primarily among homeless people who inject drugs in the Boston area, a worrying sign for health officials who several years ago were talking about a goal of eradicating new HIV cases in the state. “What we see is not only HIV transmission occurring, but the […]
Drugs
Posted inDrug Addiction
Opioid overdose deaths rise during pandemic
DEATHS FROM OPIOID OVERDOSES increased in Massachusetts during the pandemic, after three years of a steady decline. The rise in deaths is an alarming sign and one that experts say is likely indicative of the harmful impacts the pandemic is having on people with substance use disorder. “The way we looked at it is we had […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Healey sues global advertising firm for marketing addictive opioids
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY, who has been one of the country’s strongest legal crusaders against opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, has now filed a lawsuit against marketing firm Publicis Health for its role helping Purdue market addictive opioid pain medication. “Today’s lawsuit reveals important new information about the misconduct that caused the opioid crisis, and it’s another step […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Mass. to get $13.2m from McKinsey opioid settlement
MASSACHUSETTS WILL get $13.2 million from a national settlement with consultant McKinsey & Company over the company’s role working for opioid companies. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who has been a leader in the opioid-related litigation, called the settlement “an important moment for accountability” for families who have been devasted by opioid addiction. The Massachusetts […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Forced addiction treatment could be death sentence during COVID-19
AS THE COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate communities across this country, correctional facilities have become one of the most explosive epicenters of this public health crisis. Despite calls to rapidly depopulate jails and prisons, governors and correctional officials across the country are asserting that people behind bars and correctional staff could be kept “safe” inside, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A ban is not a plan
THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT has reminded us that we are not going to ban our way to social justice and public safety. The SJC on December 15 declared that the state ban on panhandling is in violation of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, our state constitution. The court ruled on a Fall River case […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Vaccine arrival brings hope to Massachusetts
“Hope arrived in a plain white box. It weighed 40 pounds and bore the label ‘heavy.’” So began Boston Globe health writer Felice Freyer’s account of the arrival of the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Boston Medical Center on Monday. Hope was a word used frequently throughout this week as media accounts […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
No marijuana ‘apocalypse,’ but legalization brings concerns
Second of two parts. Read the first part here. WHEN MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS were considering the 2016 ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana sales, opponents, including Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and a raft of public health and safety officials, raised concerns about everything from youth use to drug trafficking to impaired driving. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Lawsuit over civil commitments targets Hampden sheriff’s program
A LAWSUIT TO end the practice of confining civilly committed men with substance use disorders in prisons has been expanded to directly target a substance use program at the Hampden County House of Correction. Men held there are alleging publicly for the first time that the treatment they received at the Ludlow jail’s treatment facility was similar […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Proposed Roxbury pot shop stirs debate
WHEN IT COMES to the debate over marijuana legalization in Massachusetts, the horse has left the barn. Voters legalized recreational marijuana sales via a 2016 statewide ballot question, and pot shops are becoming part of the landscape. But just because storefront weederies are legal doesn’t mean they are necessarily desirable. That’s the argument some are […]