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A Mass. newspaper published an editorial advocating for safe injection sites, where people can use drugs under trained supervisors. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said “no.”
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley shot back at a local newspaper advocating for the state to ignore federal law and authorize safe injection sites, where people can safely use pre-obtained, illegal drugs under supervision.
“‘Safe injections sites,’ ‘harm reduction sites,’ or however they are branded by advocates, are categorically illegal and do nothing to help people overcome their addictions. To the contrary, they facilitate destructive behavior that ruins lives, consumes families and devastates communities,” Foley said.
The Lowell Sun published an editorial Sunday with the headline “Feds’ blind eye would give safe inject sites a try,” calling for a limited, pilot basis approval of safe injection sites, which are illegal on the federal level.
“Has the time finally arrived to challenge prevailing federal law in an effort to save addicts’ lives?” the Sun posed.
“I have a one-word answer to the Editorial’s opening question: No,” Foley said in a statement Wednesday.
Advocates say the sites — also known as safe consumption sites, overdose prevention centers, or harm reduction centers — can prevent fatal overdoses by testing drugs and provide critical healthcare to people who use drugs, like Narcan and treatment for infectious diseases or skin infections.
In Massachusetts, more than 2,125 people died of an overdose in 2023, down from the state’s record high in 2022 of 2,357 deaths, according to the state Department of Public Health. The state’s drug supply continues to be “heavily contaminated” with synthetic opioid fentanyl, according to DPH, which said fentanyl was present in 90 percent of fatal opioid-related overdoses in 2023.
Deirdre Calvert, Director Bureau of Substance Addiction Services for DPH, previously told Boston.com that there has never been a recorded death at a safe injection site.
“People are using drugs anyways,” Calvert said. “This brings people from the alleyways and the parks and in their cars and using alone, to a place where they can safely use their drugs under the supervision of a professional.”
70 percent of voters support safe injection sites
While Foley slammed the idea of the federal government turning a “blind eye” to safe injections sites, state and local leaders, health care professionals, and the majority of Massachusetts voters support the implementation of safe injection sites.
Rhode Island opened the country’s first state-regulated overdose prevention center, and there’s a privately run center in New York City. Massachusetts DPH released a study calling the centers “feasible and necessary.”
In Massachusetts, health officials in Worcester previously voted to support an overdose prevention center, while communities including Somerville, Cambridge, and Northampton have expressed interest in the centers.
The Sun’s editorial pitted Foley’s words in a February interview with WBUR against those of an addiction medicine specialist who said lawmakers should “go beyond” existing opioid crisis responses by allowing medically trained professionals to monitor street drug uses and prevent fatal overdoses.
“Safe injection sites is a misnomer,” Foley told WBUR. “You do not assist someone who is struggling with addiction by aiding and abetting. I believe that whatever resources would go into such sites should be diverted instead to treatment, to actually help these people — not to try to kill them.”
The editorial goes on to say that Governor Maura Healey has previously expressed support for the idea. In 2023, her office told Boston.com that “she supports allowing communities to decide what’s best for their residents, including the option of setting up safe consumption sites.”
“She will review any legislation that reaches her desk,” the statement read.
State lawmakers tried to pass a last-minute bill last year to allow supervised injection sites, but it didn’t make it to Healey.
“It’s obvious other avenues must be explored in order to get the upper hand on this deadly drug addiction affliction, and supervised drug injection sites might be one of them,” the editorial read.
Foley criticizes Mass. and Cass, which was cleared in 2023
In her statement, Foley criticized Mass. and Cass, a major tent encampment in Boston of people struggling with substance use disorders and homelessness, referring to it as “Methadone Mile.” Mayor Michelle Wu ordered the tents to be cleared in 2023, which some officials said spread the problem of drug use and homelessness to other Boston neighborhoods.
Foley said the Mass. and Cass encampment, which was at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, allowed people using drugs to “flout the law.”
“Businesses left and have not come back. Creating environments that assist people with pumping poisons into their bodies is neither compassionate nor constructive,” Foley wrote. “We should continue to direct all our resources to the prevention efforts that steer people, especially our youth, away from drug use and treatment protocols that truly save peoples’ lives from their addictions,” Foley said.
While Foley emphasized that there won’t be a change to federal law, Calvert previously told Worcester officials that there is no state law blocking the creation of a safe injection site.
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