(WesternMass News- Glenn Kittle)
“When I was only 10 years old, my father was prescribed opioids for treatment after getting into a car accident. His doctor was the first person to get him addicted to substances,” said Anibella Reeves.
Reeves is one of the four teens of the Pa’lante Restorative Justice Program in Holyoke appealing to state legislators to make opioid consumption sites legal in the Bay State.
The proposal would create a 10-year pilot program to allow drug users to consume drugs in a facility with trained staff on standby to prevent overdoses, instead of abusing those drugs on the street.
“It’s a very serious issue, it’s got to the point where kids can’t even go to parks because there will be people passed out on the slide or shooting up stuff under tents that are underneath the slide,” said Janeyah Madera of Holyoke.
State Senator John Velis is a co-chair of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use and Recovery hearing this testimony.
Velis tells Western Mass News, that sites like this only exist in 2 other places, New York City and the state of Rhode Island.
According to experts he’s heard from these facilities have proven to save lives.
“One of the things that was compelling to me was the number of people from the medical profession that do this addiction thing on a daily basis saying this is a good idea for one reason and one reason only. We are keeping people alive so that they might be able at some point in time to get the treatment they need to get better,” said Velis.
Velis tells Western Mass News if made legal, the drug consumption sites would only be in municipalities that want them.
However, many legal questions still need to be answered before this proposed program takes any further steps forward.
“Right now, these sites would be illegal under federal law. We need to know where the federal government is on this. This can’t be another example of Washington DC not letting their partners in government know where they stand on an issue as we see with so many other issues,” said Velis.
Velis tells us, that so far Somerville is the only community in the state that has expressed interest in this drug consumption site pilot program. However, he says there is still a long way to go before any law is passed to allow the facilities to be built.
Other Related Coverage: