Disputes Erupt Over How to Help Homeless on Boston’s ‘Methadone Mile’

Epoch Times ^ | 10/02/2021 | Learner Liu

[SeekAndFind]

Messy tents line the streets. Bottles, plastic bags, and all kinds of trash fly in the breeze. People with shabby clothes wander and sit. It is Boston’s “Methadone Mile,” an area that is only a few miles away from the city’s downtown and Financial District.

The epicenter of Boston’s opioid crisis and homelessness earned its nickname due to the concentration of service providers, who usually incorporate methadone into treatments of drug addiction. For years, the area has attracted a large number of homeless and addicted people, especially after the closure of Boston’s Long Island treatment facility in 2014.

Shelter and service shutdowns caused by the pandemic have been deteriorating the situation around Methadone Mile, which was also nicknamed “Mass and Cass” because it is close to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Blvd.

The Greater Boston Food Bank is located right next to the “tent city.” Carol Tienken, the food bank’s chief operating officer, recently told NBC that the number of tents in the area has grown from 100 to 200 in a matter of weeks.

Catherine D’Amato, president and CEO of the nonprofit, told Boston.com that they have invested $500,000 on security cameras, fences, and gates, and another $500,000 in hiring security guards. Otherwise, the funding could have been used to feed tens of thousands of people.

[SeekAndFind]

BOSTON "METHADONE MILE

[Wally_Kalbacken]

How about a gram of fentanyl?

[Jane Long]

Several of those, in this methadone line, don’t look homeless.

What a mess.

[Salvavida]

Get your National Guard to build a dry out camp. Then classify them like you would recruits and get them into counseling and skilled labor.

But this is untenable.

[goodnesswins]

The Greater Boston Food Bank is located right next to the “tent city.” Well...duh

[genghis]

No toilet action no tents no sleeping on sidewalk no sleeping in parks. Make jail very unpleasant. Not more complicated than that.

[Nateman]

Chinese Fentanyl is solving drug addition one corpse at a time.

[the_daug]

Withdrawal on methadone is more severe than heroin withdrawal. Why is the government selling methadone?

[Brian Griffin]

Winter will come, and so will self-reflection.

[Brian Griffin]

“methadone does not function as much to curb addiction as to redirect it and maintain dependency on authorised channels”

“Because of its long half-life, methadone is almost invariably prescribed to be taken in a single daily dose.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone

The long half-life is highly suitable for maintenance or slowly tapered withdrawal.

[Brian Griffin]

“Several of those, in this methadone line, don’t look homeless.”

Methadone users often get government-subsidized housing and government “disability” payments.

[Veggie Todd]

Give them a choice: Enter a strict lock-down rehab facility or you can have all the fentanyl you want. Your choice.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Boston - I wonder if the British would take it back?

After all, the Brits were called Red Coats and
Boston/Massachusetts is as RED as they come.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

8. Yes, the Red Chinese are famous for their “style of Carry Out”.

[metmom]

Winter is coming.

That’ll thin them out some.

[Jimmy Valentine]

“ How about a gram of fentanyl“ A rather cynical but effective solution to the problem.

[Fido969]

All of Boston is within a few miles of the financial district. Pointless observation.

[ronnie raygun]

Don’t worry liberal progressive Boston will think of something........................totally rediculous

[Chickensoup]

Bus tickets to California