Statement By U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley Regarding Lowell Sun Editorial on Injection Sites

“The April 6th Editorial by the Lowell Sun suggested that the “Feds’ blind eye would give safe inject sites a try.” The Editorial began by asking if the time has arrived to challenge prevailing federal law that criminalizes so-called “safe injection sites”; it ended with the hope that the time would come when the federal government would turn a blind eye to any such sites in Massachusetts.

I have a one-word answer to the Editorial’s opening question: No.  

As to the hope for a blind eye, I guarantee that such a time will never come during this Administration. “Safe injections sites,” “harm reduction sites,” or however they are branded by advocates, are categorically illegal and do nothing to help people overcome their addictions. To the contrary, they facilitate destructive behavior that ruins lives, consumes families and devastates communities.

Not too long ago, the open-air drug market operating with impunity along “Methadone Mile” in Boston was shut down because of skyrocketing increases in drug trafficking, sex trafficking and violence, which were the direct result of the ill-conceived experiment allowing drug users to flout the law. Businesses left and have not come back. Creating environments that assist people with pumping poisons into their bodies is neither compassionate nor constructive. We should continue to direct all our resources to the prevention efforts that steer people, especially our youth, away from drug use and treatment protocols that truly save peoples’ lives from their addictions.”