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 […]
Drug Addiction
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 […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Interstate finger-pointing after deadly crash
It seems well established that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy drove the truck that killed seven motorcyclists in the White Mountains last weekend, but what is less clear why he still had a […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Juul says it’s only here to help
E-CIGARETTE USE HAS EXPLODED, and whether this is a good thing or not depends very much on the vantage point from which it’s viewed. Both vantage points were on display […]
Posted inOpinion
Hail to the Harm Reduction Commission
THE GOVERNOR’S HARM REDUCTION COMMISSION’S endorsement of supervised drug consumption sites is a game-changing step towards effective drug policy, especially concerning problematic drug use. Government commissions often serve as convenient […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Was ‘Reefer Madness’ right?
IN THE MID-1930s, a church group financed a film intended to frighten parents about the dangers their children face from marijuana. “Reefer Madness” portrayed cannabis as a powerful drug capable of […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Commission torn over supervised injection sites
MEMBERS OF A STATE COMMISSION see some theoretical benefits from establishing supervised drug injection sites, but when it comes to the feasibility of actually establishing such programs, consensus was harder […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC weighs appropriate penalty for supplying heroin
HEROIN KILLED ERIC SINACORI, a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts Amherst student, who was found dead by his parents when they visited from New Jersey in October 2013. A medical examiner […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Pharma faces different type of drug trial
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME may be conducted in executive suites or empty speaking halls, but its victims can all too quickly wind up in the same place as those killed by a […]
Posted inOpinion
Four reasons medication-assisted treatment may not help inmates
IN DECEMBER, a federal district court judge in Massachusetts ordered the Essex County jail to provide an entering inmate methadone so that he could continue his successful methadone treatment of […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Spoon Movement comes to Beacon Hill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PASSERBY GAWKED as the men pulled a ramp down from the back of a U-Haul truck parked on a Beacon Street curb Friday morning and began […]
Posted inOpinion
E-scripts for opioids save lives
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER recently signed into law a bill to mitigate the state-level effects of the ongoing opioid crisis. Like other such legislative efforts at both the federal and state […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Opioids’ path of destruction in construction
DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH patterns among different population groups is a well-established fact. Indeed, it forms the foundation for an entire field of health research, epidemiology, which has contributed enormously to […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Drug treatment for drug addiction
It’s an approach that research evidence and many in recovery say makes sense — but one that some advocates say has it all wrong. One of the most effective ways […]
Posted inThe Download
Drug treatment for drug addiction
It’s an approach that research evidence and many in recovery say makes sense — but one that some advocates say has it all wrong. One of the most effective ways […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Withholding methadone from inmates is wrong
I WILL NEVER forget the pained look on my patient Jorge’s face when I asked him why he stopped taking methadone to treat his opioid dependency. He was in my […]
Posted inDrug Addiction, Health Care
Recovery coaches could be game changers on opioid addiction
IN 2017, five people died each day from opioid-related overdoses in Massachusetts. That’s nearly 2,000 families who lost a loved one. The opioid epidemic is one of the most serious […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Judging the judge
A protest last week outside a Salem courthouse featured a refrain made familiar by the scholarly legal eagles who regularly populate the president’s rally, where they apply only the most […]
Posted inOpinion
A bridge to opportunity
IN 2014, THE OPIOID crisis passed two critical local milestones: Massachusetts’ fatal opioid overdose rate rose to more than double the national average; and the city of Boston lost an […]
Posted inOpinion
What’s Walsh’s real end game?
MARTY WALSH DID NOT BECOME the mayor of the City of Boston by being a stupid man. When anyone – anyone – looks at the cost-benefit analysis of rebuilding the Long Island […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Involuntary commitment of drug users wrong approach
MASSACHUSETTS IS AIMING to tackle the opioid crisis head on. On Friday, the Joint House and Senate committee dealing with substance abuse is set to move forward on major legislation […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Walsh takes concrete step to rebuild Long Island Bridge
BOSTON OFFICIALS SAY they intend to go full speed ahead with rebuilding Long Island Bridge as a path to an addiction recovery center on the harbor island and claim their […]
Posted inOpinion
Taxpayers clean up Big Pharma’s mess
LAST YEAR, the United States saw a 13 percent increase in drug overdose deaths, from an estimated 60,147 lives lost in 2016, to an estimated 67,944 in 2017. For perspective, […]
Posted inOpinion
How we end the opioid epidemic
IT’S DIFFICULT TO WATCH OR READ the news without seeing another family torn apart by the opioid crisis. The epidemic is so widespread that it’s been declared a national public […]
