Brianne Fitzgerald, an RN with a master's in public health explains why "harm reduction" efforts, such as an Albany Street facility where addicts can come down from a high under medical supervision, shouldn't be expanded to include "safe injection" sites:

It's essentially giving up hope on people who use IV drugs. One might even call this end-of-life or hospice care. The idea of such a facility takes away a person’s autonomy and essentially forces a social agenda that supports the normalization of IV drug use over active care and treatment.

WBUR reports on the plans by Boston Health Care for the Homeless for "a room with a nurse, some soft chairs and basic life-saving equipment" at Mass. Ave. and Albany Street, which has become an epicenter of the city's opiate crisis:

Gaeta says she and her colleagues are desperate to offer an option for the people they see overdose every day, whom they must sometimes step over to get into the program’s clinic.

Boston Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office today announced charges against 21 people for their alleged participation in a drug ring that imported heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into the Boston area.

Rafael "Chi Chi" Peguero, 43, of Dorchester, was ordered held in lieu of $2 million dollars at his arraignment today, the DA's office says. Peguero was allegedly at the top of the ring with two other men, both held without bail until authorities can positively identify them.

Filed on Citizens Connect today:

Marijuana or crack cocaine smoking device outside transitions drug rehab [in Mattapan] which is funded by city...just thought everyone should know

Rehab fail.

The Urban Paramedic reports Boston is in one of its periodic upticks in which heroin addicts drop like flies:

... Every night for the past three weeks we've had at least one overdose, and on some evenings we've seen as many as four. It doesn't seem to be letting up. And we're not getting these calls only in Roxbury and South Boston, where heroin has always been a problem. This time around, we're seeing overdoses in practically every neighborhood. ...

He adds the cause could be either purer-than-expected heroin on the street or people simply shooting up more.

The AP has been busy, finding lots of drugs in people's water. Sadly, Boston is on the list of cities that don't test for this stuff. Look on the bright side; you could live in a city run these morons:

Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.