Issue Position: The Opioid Epidemic

Issue Position

As State Representative, I will always help those in need, just like I did before. Over the years, I have worked to find dozens of individuals -- many not even from the district -- detox beds, residential program beds, and even halfway houses once they are further down the road of recovery. I daresay that I am the only candidate who has worked with families who have successfully sectioned (Section 35 for those curious) an individual, and worked with the family, courts, and patient to successfully find beds. I can't tell you how many times I called an insurance company, or MassHealth, to argue to extend the patients stay or change their insurance network so someone could be properly admitted. On occasion, I even helped a family work with a free attorney to successfully petition the courts to have a loved one sectioned and committed.

I believe Massachusetts needs to focus on medical facilities that are not looking at their financial bottom line with regards to this crisis. Working with families, I have seen first-hand that many of these centers are actually held by a holding company and treat the patient with minimal care which ultimately leads to relapse. I also believe the state needs to invest in poly-substance and dual diagnosis treatment. Poly-substance abuse treats addictions across a multitude of drugs, and dual diagnosis treats those with mental health issues that led to addiction. Both are extremely critical to understand in the world of dependency, and in my view have been ignored long enough.

I also want to point out that the US and Massachusetts struggle to adapt to new drugs being introduced into our communities. A simple change of a molecule could introduce a new drug that is technically legal. China, Mexico -- even Afghanistan -- all have labs which focus on creating new drugs and can easily change the chemical makeup of opioids and other drugs. Massachusetts needs to overhaul its drug laws to target the end result of chemical compounds rather than criminalizing one drug at a time. The bureaucracy here is literally killing citizens. We need to create a flexible and responsive set of laws to allow our men and women in the police to stop drug distributors.

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