Massachusetts lawmakers on Monday heard testimony on separate proposals to decriminalize drug possession and establish a pilot program for safe injection facilities where people could use illicit substances in a medically supervised environment to prevent overdose deaths and facilitate treatment.<\/p>\n
The state legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery held a hearing on the harm reduction proposals, with experts and people personally impacted by substance misuse advocating for new approaches to drugs that destigmatize addiction and offer people resources outside of a criminal justice context.<\/p>\n
The decriminalization bill would replace criminal penalties for the possession of any controlled substance<\/a> with a civil fine of up to $50. To avoid the fine, individuals could enroll in a \u201cneeds screening to identify health and other service needs, including but not limited to services that may address any problematic substance use and mental health conditions, lack of employment, housing, or food, and any need for civil legal services.\u201d<\/p>\n For the safe injection site legislation, the state would establish a 10-year pilot program where at least two facilities would \u201cutilize harm reduction tools, including clinical monitoring of the consumption of pre-obtained controlled substances in the presence of trained staff, for the purpose of reducing the risks of disease transmission and preventing overdose deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate, less far-reaching bill that was added to the agenda in a late addition would direct the Department of Public Health to simply \u201cevaluate the feasibility\u201d of safe consumption sites and then report back to lawmakers by July 31, 2022..<\/p>\n The joint committee listened<\/a> to academics, health professionals, lawmakers discuss the reform proposals but did not take immediate action on any of the legislation. It\u2019s unclear when the bills will be taken up again for further consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cBy every metric, the war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure,\u201d Rep. Mike Connolly (D) said. \u201cIn the United States and here in Massachusetts, the criminalization of drug possession is a major driver of mass incarceration. We know that black people have been incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than white people, and there\u2019s no question that the criminalization of substance use issues has contributed to these terrible disparities.\u201d<\/p>\n Connolly is also the sponsor of legislation that received a Joint Judiciary Committee hearing<\/a> in July on \u00a0studying the implications of legalizing psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials with at least one Massachusetts city, Somerville, said that there are plans in the work to launch a safe injection facility in the jurisdiction. And they want to see the statewide bill pass to provide additional protections against being federally penalized.<\/p>\n \u201cState legislation, wielding its constitutionally granted powers to enact laws for public health and safety, has the ability to greatly minimize these risks through legislation authorizing a pilot of safe consumption sites,\u201d Hannah Pappenheim, assistant city solicitor at the City of Somerville, said. \u201cIn addition, state legislation would also minimize the risk of costly\u2014but more importantly, lengthy\u2014litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n The official noted that a separate, Pennsylvania-based case on the legality of safe injection sites has been ongoing in federal courts for years at this point.<\/p>\n A coalition of 80 current and former prosecutors and law enforcement officials\u2014including one who is President Joe Biden\u2019s pick for U.S. attorney of Massachusetts\u2014recently filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to take up the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n Xavier Bacerra, the Biden administration\u2019s secretary of health and human services, was among eight top state law enforcement officials who\u00a0filed\u00a0an earlier amicus brief\u00a0in support of the Philadelphia-based Safehouse\u2019s safe injection site plan<\/a>\u00a0when he served as California\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n \u201cState legislation paves the way for a more expedient process in Somerville, and of course elsewhere in the Commonwealth,\u201d Pappenheim said.<\/p>\n Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone (D) said at Monday\u2019s hearing that \u201cit\u2019s important for Massachusetts to finally lead\u2014not just compiling, but implementing a strategy that reduces harm and save lives.\u201d He conceded that he previously opposed the concept of allowing safe consumption sites; but his personal experience knowing people in his immediate family who suffered from addiction\u2014as well as his own review of the scientific literature on harm reduction alternatives to criminalization\u2014led him to embrace the reforms.<\/p>\n Massachusetts lawmakers\u00a0advanced similar legislation last year<\/a>, but it was not ultimately enacted.<\/p>\n The governor of neighboring Rhode Island signed a bill in July to establish a safe consumption site pilot program<\/a>\u00a0where people could test and use currently illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. It became the first state in the country to legalize the harm reduction centers. It\u2019s not clear whether the Department of Justice will seek to intervene to prevent the opening of such facilities in that state.<\/p>\n Oamshri Amarasingham, deputy legislative director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, voiced support for both reform proposals at Monday\u2019s hearing and told WGBH that establishing a safe injection site pilot program \u201cis one piece of that puzzle\u201d that is \u201ccritically important and that\u2019s had great success in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n The ACLU has long supported shifting to a #PublicHealth<\/a> approach to drug policy rather than a criminal one\u2026 <\/p>\n Here’s a report featuring additional statements from Oami @Amarasingham<\/a>, our deputy legislative director. #Mapoli<\/a> #Bospoli<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/g1i9xbC2jS<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ACLU Massachusetts (@ACLU_Mass) September 27, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Shaleen Title, a former Massachusetts cannabis commissioner who now heads the Parabola Center, juxtaposed how laws handle substances like caffeine, alcohol and nicotine differently from currently illegal drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat separates that from when we have these illicit drugs, where handcuffs and cages are involved, and what led that to be? The reason has nothing to do with science, or evidence or the relative dangers of those drugs,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason is because\u2014and this is well-documented\u2014those drugs could be scapegoated and blamed on their association with indigenous and Indian and Mexican and Chinese and other cultures, and then used to target communities of color, particularly black and Latino people nationally and here in Massachusetts.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time that Massachusetts legislators are looking into harm reduction and broad drug decriminalization, local activists in the state have also been pursuing psychedelics reform.<\/p>\n Three Massachusetts cities\u2014Northampton<\/a>,\u00a0Somerville<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cambridge<\/a>\u2014have each passed resolutions to deprioritize enforcement of laws against the possession, use and distribution of a wide range of psychedelics and other drugs. The Easthampton City Council is also exploring a resolution to decriminalize a wide range of entheogenic substances<\/a>, with a meeting set for Friday.<\/p>\n Marijuana Arrests Dropped Sharply In 2020 As Both COVID And Legalization Spread, FBI Data Shows<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Massachusetts Lawmakers Discuss Drug Decriminalization And Safe Injection Sites At Hearing<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Massachusetts lawmakers on Monday heard testimony on separate proposals to decriminalize drug possession and establish a pilot program for safe injection facilities where people could use illicit substances in a medically supervised environment to prevent overdose deaths and facilitate treatment. The state legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance UseContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50156,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50155\/revisions\/50156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Massachusetts Lawmakers Discuss Drug Decriminalization And Safe Injection Sites At Hearing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"