Another hypothetical scenario to consider on this bright June day.
It is the summer of 2018, and Greenfield has recently seen a huge spike in fatal drunk driving accidents involving teens. Local health officials say teen drinking has reached epidemic levels, and action needs to be taken. In response, a group of medical experts approach Mayor Bill Martin and suggest that the best way to combat the problem and ensure the safety of teens is to provide space in the town’s new community center where young people can go to drink freely, on the condition that they turn over their car keys and allow someone to drive them home at the end of the night.
You can imagine the reaction if Martin were to bring such a proposal to the Town Council. But from a legal perspective, that’s not a whole lot different than establishing a program to allow IV drug users to exchange dirty needles for clean ones.
In both cases, you have government trying to address a health crisis by effectively encouraging — or, at the very least, enabling — people to engage in illegal activity. Intentions aside, the dynamic is the same, and it’s one I’m guessing will make a number of residents pretty uncomfortable.
That’s where the similarities end, however, because there is ample research to suggest that communities that house needle exchange programs do see some benefits. Addicts who ordinarily might never consider going into treatment may be more likely to because of their interactions with exchange workers. There are fewer dirty needles on those streets and contagion rates for Hepatitis and HIV are reported to be markedly lower in communities where a needle exchange is present.
Another thing that has changed is the political approach to drug addiction, where everyone from the governor on down seems to agree that this is a medical problem, and not one which can be solved by law enforcement, which is what the whole “war on drugs” of the last four decades has largely been about.
Not that any of that will matter much when it comes time to debate the merits of bringing such a program to Greenfield, where I expect we’ll be hearing quite a bit of complaints about government making it easier for “druggies” to get their fix. I’m betting a lot of those same people, however, have not had to go through the emotional meat-grinder of seeing a loved one snared by an opioid epidemic whose victims seem to get younger with each passing year.
Whether they like it or not, it appears the future of needle exchange will be decided by the 13 members of the Greenfield Town Council, and I don’t envy them one bit, because this has the potential to be one of the most politically-charged and important health debates in recent memory.
The Massachusetts Legislature is working on a measure which will likely be music to the ears of anyone whose been interrupted by a ringing phone during dinner.
The House is considering debating a bill that would drastically change the way telemarketers do business here.
“A telephone solicitor is going to have to identify their employer within the first minute of the call and use a valid phone number which shows up on caller ID,” 2nd Hampshire State Rep. John Scibak said. “It also requires them to record fundraising calls, and make those tapes and letters available for audit by the attorney general.”
Scibak says perhaps the best part of the bill is that it prevents telemarketers from misrepresenting themselves as being police officers, firefighters, teachers or doctors in an effort to develop a fundraising hook.
“This happens more than you think,” Scibak said. “It happened to me a few years ago when I was a selectman in South Hadley and I got a fundraising call from someone claiming to be a town police officer, except that I knew he wasn’t because I knew all the cops in town.”
The one thing the bill doesn’t address is the abject joke that is the “Do Not Call” list, which is about as effective as a rubber crutch. Take it from a guy who is supposedly on it, and gets no less than six to eight telemarketing calls per day.
If you are as big a fan of political movies as I am, there is one film you absolutely have to see.
“All The Way” is on HBO, and features an epic performance by “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston, who portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson. The film chronicles the year between Johnson’s ascent to the presidency following JFK’s assassination until his own election in 1964, with a special focus on his effort to lobby Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Even if you don’t get HBO, it’s worth buying it for one month to be able to see what might be the best take on a modern political legend since William Devane portrayed Kennedy in “The Missiles of October.”
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former staff reporter for The Recorder and a Greenfield native.