As opioid crisis continues, Boston officials launch integrated campaign
After more than 2100 overdose deaths across Massachusetts last year alone, officials are fighting back with a broad-reaching public awareness effort. Boston’s new “Resist the Risk” campaign is running via placards on MBTA buses, on Red and Orange line trains and, soon, social media platforms. The messages, sometimes grim, cut to the chase: One features a cemetery and the warning, “Keep your name off the next headstone.”
Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb explained, “We hope this campaign will help people make the right choices, that it will help them resist the risk of abusing, selling and sharing prescription painkillers and illegal drugs.”
Special Agent-in-Charge Michael J. Ferguson was even more emphatic – “I can tell you that in my almost 28 years as a special agent with DEA, this is the worst public health and safety epidemic I have ever witnessed…If anything can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction and what it does to a community, it’s fentanyl.”
Transit Police Chief Kenneth Green commented on the cross-departmental nature that is required for an effort like this. “History has taught us that we cannot arrest our way out of the scourge. But by working collaboratively in humanizing those afflicted with drug addiction, we can help save lives and prevent further harm.”
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To learn more about how officials are working to save lives in Boston, please visit the Boston Herald.