A powerful statistic inspired a call nearly a year ago for Cambridge to host an overdose prevention site: the 38 drug deaths within the borders of Cambridge in 2021, the most recent year for which there was data at the time.
With the issue of possibly finding a place for a monitored drug injection site returning Monday to the City Council, there was new data to consider – and health officials now know that from 2019 to 2022 there were 80 people killed in Cambridge by drug overdoses.
“That’s an average 20 a year,” said councillor Marc McGovern, a social worker leading a yearslong charge for an injection site. “If 20 people a year were dying from anything else, people would be storming City Hall demanding that we do something.”
The site would allow people injecting drugs to do it with clean needles under medical supervision, preventing overdose deaths, catching infectious diseases and moving users to get help treating their addiction. In more than three decades of operation in Canada, Australia and parts of Europe, no overdose death has been reported at one of the centers, experts say, while more of their clients enter recovery.
The council passed an order Monday asking the city manager to seek an agency to lead a community process looking at, among other issues, community concerns and where a center might go. “It’s important that it be accessible for people to get to, but this could be a trailer up in Alewife – it doesn’t have to be a bricks-and-mortar building,” McGovern said.
Deaths close to home
The new order passed by the council also calls for an expert look at potential legal issues for hosting one of the centers, which are frowned upon officially by the federal government but seem to be moving toward rapid approval on Beacon Hill with a bill co-sponsored by Cambridge state Rep. Marjorie Decker.
“This is going to happen at the state level, and I want Cambridge to be ready,” McGovern said.
A similar order was adopted 8-0 in June, but it expired in January as the new council was seated; the unanimous vote Monday revives the order.
For McGovern, the delay stings: “From the month of February to April of this year, just in about two and a half months, I lost two people very close to me from overdoses – two people who are completely different, a 57-year-old man who struggled with homelessness and addiction for decades and a 20-year-old kid who was just messing around,” he said. “This is something that is impacting an incredibly wide range of people. I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t been touched by this in some way.”
The Central Square question
The topic of location came up last year for reasons that persist – the question of whether Central Square, beset especially in recent years with a perception of crime, squalor and homelessness, is the best place for an overdose prevention site or the worst.
“We’re really trying to get Central Square off its knees and back on its feet,” Mayor E. Denise Summons said, noting services already there such as a needle exchange and homeless shelters. “I’m pleased that the language has been modified so it’s not a fait accompli that it’d be in Central Square, and that we will look at other areas in the city to share this responsibility to help people.”
The neighboring city of Somerville has been ahead of Cambridge on setting up a safe-injection site. At around the time last year Cambridge was asking to explore the idea, the Somerville City Council approved $170,000 more for site preparation, construction and furnishing of a safe consumption site. Somerville has set aside a total $997,000 for its project, but there have been no recent updates.
A stronger
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McGovern is going for this with a passion that makes one question how many envelopes of cash he gets from local dealers.
McGovern is going for this with a passion that indicates he doesn’t want more of his neighbors to needlessly die because of bad faith drug warrior nonsense like the above comment.
Put it in Avon Hill area….seems only fair.
Sam, what a great idea!
Thank you Denise Simmons for at least trying.