Passage of Question 4 would create a framework for therapeutic (not commercial) use of certain natural psychedelics, such as psilocybin, which is found in mushrooms, allowing veterans and others to legally access an alternative method of treatment that has shown enormous potential to treat post-traumatic stress, depression, and other mental health ailments.
Drugs
Posted inOpinion
First responders in Mass. should have access to fentanyl treatment
It’s my sincere hope that Massachusetts will update its standing orders to include this treatment. Our first responders need to have access to all available approved treatments.
Posted inOpinion
We need more stories like Bobby’s
As we have shown with cystic fibrosis here in Massachusetts, when the patients, families, scientists, academics, political leaders, and life science companies come together as one, there is no cure that is beyond our reach. Just ask Bobby.
Posted inOpinion
Question 4 is one solution to mental health crisis
Natural psychedelics provide a promising, necessary, and research-backed opportunity for healing where traditional therapies have fallen short.
Posted inOpinion
Pharmacy benefit managers are engaging in thievery
Pharmacy benefit managers were created with the intention they would negotiate discounts and pass them on to patients. Instead, they’ve taken advantage of not being regulated using several tactics to reap profits, sometimes in the billions.
Posted inOpinion
Bill filed by Neal would devastate life sciences
THE BIOTECHNOLOGY and pharmaceutical sector in the Boston area is about to hit some rough water. According to the Brussels-based consulting firm Vital Transformation, the prescription drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will result in job losses of at least 500,000 nationwide over the next decade, about 30,000 of which will come […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
On Mass. and Cass, a Wu turn
ACCORDING TO THE old adage, a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. That may not be exactly what’s happening with the shift in the city’s approach to the troubled area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Boulevard in Boston. But it nonetheless marked a striking turn to hear the city’s progressive mayor, Michelle Wu, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Drugs, Opinion
When drug busts lead to more overdoses we’re on the wrong path
MOST THOUGHTFUL police leaders will tell you that they will not arrest their way out of the drug abuse epidemic. A mountain of research supports their views. Still, as opioid overdoses alone have accounted for nearly 1 million lives lost in the United States in the past two decades, we remain mired in a strategy […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Somerville makes push for mobile drug consumption site
SOMERVILLE is making strides toward being the first city or town in Massachusetts to open a supervised drug consumption site, an initiative that advocates say has shown promise internationally in combating overdoses. “If we have this tool that works, then nobody needs to die,” said Sarah Evans, the division director of drug policy at the […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Healey administration grapples with record high opioid deaths
THE STATE WAS already swimming upstream against the opioid epidemic, but new numbers showing record high opioid-related overdose deaths brought an undercurrent of despair to Healey administration discussion of how to stem the toll. There were 2,357 confirmed and estimated fatal opioid-related overdoses in Massachusetts last year, or 33.5 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to […]