Lawmakers renew calls for overdose prevention centers
Photo | Courtesy of Ella Adams, State House News Service
Advocates speak at a Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Committee hearing in Gardner Auditorium on Monday. From left: ACLU Legislative Director Gavi Wolfe, RIZE Massachusetts President and CEO Julie Burns, and Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery Executive Director Noel Sierra.
Controversial bills to legalize overdose prevention centers returned to the spotlight Monday, as a committee leader touted recent gains in reducing the state's volume of fatal opioid-related overdoses and warned about shifting federal policies that could affect the landscape.
Refiled proposals from Reps. Marjorie Decker and John Lawn and Sen. Julian Cyr (H 2196 / S 1393) provide a pathway for cities and towns to establish safe injection sites, while providing legal protections for workers, drug users accessing the facilities, government officials and other stakeholders. At the centers, trained health care workers would supervise individuals who use pre-obtained illicit drugs -- and they could intervene and prevent fatal overdoses. The House bill has about three dozen sponsors and the Senate bill about a dozen.
At the start of a hearing, Rep. Mindy Domb, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery, took swipes at the Trump administration and affirmed that Massachusetts believes in "evidence-based public health practices," as she invoked vaccination policy and other initiatives. Massachusetts last year recorded fewer than 2,000 fatal overdoses, breaking a grim yearslong trend, Domb said.
"There is no doubt that evidence-based harm reduction measures like naloxone distribution and availability, drug checking, and the distribution of sterile needles and other harm reduction supplies and the use of harm reduction practices contributed to this decline," Domb said.
The Amherst Democrat continued, "Sadly at this time, this work and the progress made in reducing overdose mortality, and the humanity and the science that is foundational to these programs -- like other evidence-based public health initiatives -- is under threat in this country, whether it's written in executive order, announced in the termination of funding, or spoken in language that dehumanizes our residents and perpetuates stigma. People and communities in need of our support are under attack."
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on July 24 addressing homelessness and drug use. It directed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to ensure that substance use disorder grants "fund evidence-based programs and do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm." Recipients of federal housing and homelessness assistance that operate safe consumption sites could also face civil or criminal charges, according to the order.
The state Senate last session embraced overdose prevention centers, though the policy was dropped from a compromise addiction and substance disorder bill with the House.
The compromise expanded access to overdose reversal drugs, and limited legal liability for drug users and harm reduction workers who use drug-checking equipment.
Legislative leaders have not flagged consumption sites as a priority so far this session.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley in April called overdose prevention centers "categorically illegal" and said they "do nothing to help people overcome their addictions."
New York City opened two overdose prevention centers in 2021, and a new facility began operating in Providence in January, said Gavi Wolfe, legislative director at ACLU of Massachusetts. Overriding a gubernatorial veto, Vermont lawmakers last year also passed a law enabling a pilot overdose prevention center in Burlington, according to the Associated Press.
"We need to be real about the fact that in 2025, the Trump administration and its anti-public health policies cast a long shadow over harm reduction, substance use harm reduction work," Wolfe said. "There's been a lot of heated rhetoric coming out of Washington trying to turn back the clock and renew the failed war on drugs that's been going on for 50 years."
Referring to the new Providence center, Wolfe continued, "But there's been no change in the law or facts on the ground. The OPC is already in operation, hasn't seen any federal interference, they're keeping their doors open and continuing to save lives. It's time for Massachusetts to join them."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments