
Kelli O'Hara reports police responded this afternoon to 804 Tremont St., where they found one man in his 40s dead and two others suffering from drug overdoses.
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Comments
State of Emergency
By Anthony
Sun, 09/11/2016 - 11:25pm
What is it going to take how many bodies is it going to take for our government to realize that were in the mist of a state of emergency regarding overdoses.
More , more money into treatment and research to combat this epidemic. THIS IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY.
oh dont worry
By Scumquistador
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 12:01am
didnt you hear, there is actually a war against drugs right now
The government can't fix everything
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 12:24am
We are always going to have addicts, unfortunately.
The only way to change this situation?
By mplo
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:00am
Change society.
Emergency Indeed
By BostonDog
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 7:28am
Previously: When people [minorities] are dying in alleyways it's their own fault. Why should we spend any money on them -- they are only going to scam the system and spend it on iphones. Cut public aid to these welfare queens and let them figure it out on their own.
Now: OMG, STATE OF EMERGENCY! Someone who's likely white died in an expensive apartment in a good part of town. This shit is serious!
Whoever lived at 804 Tremont
By maria c
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 7:34am
Whoever lived at 804 Tremont qualified to live there by The Community Builders, Inc. Go to their website before you jump to conclusions. They own the place.
THANK YOU! Some people see
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:52am
THANK YOU! Some people see Tremont St and think the Commons area simply because their world is just that small.
My statement stands
By BostonDog
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:29am
It's not as if ODs are uncommon, they just aren't often reported.
This weekend UHub reported people shot and stabbed in less desirable parts of the city. UHub posts the same headlines several times a week almost every single week. Where's the all-caps calls for emergency action?
Where's your comment?
By Sally
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:29am
I don't see your name popping up on those stories with sympathy and calls to action.
It doesn't take a genius to observe that a shooting on Charles Street is more unusual and thus more newsworthy than a shooting on Geneva Ave. Since we don't have any clue so far as to the IDs, race, or economic status of these folks, why not hold off on the sweeping social commentary until then?
Oh my god!
By bosguy22
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:31am
People don't get as upset and outraged at shootings/stabbings in areas they deem safe vs. those they deem unsafe. Obviously they're racists.
Is there a term for
By erik g
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 2:40pm
the inexplicable thrill one experiences when one sees someone attempting to make a cutting remark, but actually they're just demonstrating the point they think they're cleverly refuting?
There's got to be a term for this, and I'm betting it's German.
Sweeping
By BostonDog
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:38am
My take is that we should have *already* had higher spending on drug treatment. I'm glad to see Baker trying to address the opioid problem but he's been silent on other drug problems in the past and his political party makes cutting public programs one of their central tenants. They claim tough love is the only solution to "urban" problems.
Yet suddenly when people in wealthy, non-minority areas are OD'ing they are finding they have some compassion after all -- provided the treatment is only aimed at one type of drug user.
So
By bosguy22
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:14am
If you weren't for increased spending on drug issues, you may never be for increases in spending on drug issues?
Change of heart
By BostonDog
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:21am
The compassion shown recently is great but hypocritical if only aimed at one type of drug abuse or if the money for these programs is taken from other public assistance programs.
What other drug
By bosguy22
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 2:12pm
Is causing massive amounts of overdoses and deaths?
Indeed, bosguy22
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:34pm
1659 estimated opioid deaths in MA in 2015. Not a just 3 OD's (with one death) in one apartment on one day but an average of more than 4 1/2 per day.
Please do provide any info on any drug scourge that compares, BostonDog.
Your statement is simply invalid.
This is unprecedented.
alcohol?
By bractune
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 2:53am
alcohol? cigarettes?
How many?
By bosguy22
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 9:14am
How many alcohol and cigarette overdoses have their been in Massachusetts this year?
"Tobacco kills more people
By bractune
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 12:43pm
"Tobacco kills more people than motor vehicle crashes, AIDS, homicides, suicides and poisonings
combined."
http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/tobacco-control...
* poisonings = drugs and alcohol overdose included
a quick overdose seems like it would be merciful compared to the death that comes by smoking.
Smokers don't die at 19 or even 39 usually
By anon
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 4:40pm
Sure it sucks but you normally have to enjoy those mofos for decades before the Big C gets ya. Same with booze for the most part.
Heroin, esp. laced with fentanyl, is a whole different kettle of fish.
Could be game over on your first shot and every one after that is a like Russian Roulette.
And btw--read some comments sections
By Sally
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:33am
Or check the story on the white grandmother and her boyfriend in Ohio who zonked out while driving with her 4-year-old grandson. People feel pretty free to criticize and judge addicts, no matter what their color, and you'll see plenty of people saying that they're worthless scumbags as well as a growing number calling for treatment and action.
up to a point
By Malcolm Tucker
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:39am
I would say that people are generally quite cruel and judgmental when it comes to addicts, whatever their race - that much is true. However, I think a big reason this is now an issue of (relatively compassionate) public policy is that more victims of the opioid crisis are white and middle-class.
No doubt, as well as the new connection
By Sally
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 7:14pm
between prescription drugs and addiction. The issue becomes much more blameless if you believe that it could happen to anyone who's ever slipped a disc or broken an ankle.
What would YOU call
By Cappy
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:56am
Someone who gets behind the wheel with a four year old in the car while on Heroin?
I think worthless scumbag is a fairly good description.
People do this on alcohol
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:59am
And they do it far more often.
Next outrage,please.
Are you serious?
By Cappy
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:25am
"What about the people on alcohol?"
Yeah, dummy they are also pieces of crap. Equally.
OK?
Right!!
By Mmmm Hmmmm
Sun, 10/09/2016 - 12:45pm
You are absolutely right in what you posted. All of a sudden something MUST be done about the heroin epidemic. Know why? Because it's killing the suburbanites and cape cod residents. Now something must be done about it. Let it be going on in the hood and not one peep would be heard from these racist bigots!
that has historically been a
By rozzie resident
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 7:53am
that has historically been a big area for drugs. i used to hear about tremont st having very active corners around camden st. median income around there is not high either anywhere from 15k - 45k p/y on those blocks (though cost of living tells a different story)
BostonDog thinks minorities
By voter
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:10am
BostonDog thinks minorities don't own expensive property in wealthy parts of Boston... what a load of racist BS! Why don't you get out of your house and walk around Boston and start talking to people!! Minorities HAVE JOBS, OWN PROPERTY, LIVE IN NICE NEIGHBORHOODS!
Nice try. Not an expensive
By anonnn
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:14am
Nice try. Not an expensive apartment, not a good part of town, no evidence of victims' race, most likely more of the same old-same old.
Dum!
By Ms. Call You Out
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:16am
I work and live in the area it's not just minorities that are scamming, stealing and walking around zoned out. . Maybe you should look near BMC, it's all races that are affected by this.
God Forbid
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:28am
Anyone bring up any of the ACTUAL STATISTICS: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/stop...
Really, Boston Dog?
By Long Time Listener
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 12:11pm
The three men referenced in this article are neither white nor are they wealthy. They're Hispanic. They're also friends of my husband (Hispanic). I am white. Not that my or my husband's race matter - except to you; that's why I included it.
One man is dead and two are in critical condition, and you post this garbage?
You should really count to at least ten billion before you post something so stupid.
Sorry for your loss BUT...
By JustACitizen
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 2:51pm
I don't think his comments should be considered GARBAGE. His assumption on the location and the description of the parties involved was inaccurate. However less than 5 minutes north of this location are million dollar brownstones and wealthy non black and Hispanic people. I think he was trying to acknowledge that when a situation affects non minorities the level of attention to the issue rises and the platform is larger. It reminds me of this author by the name of Eddie Glaude (professor at Princeton). He coined the term Value Gap. Which means at the basic level, that in America, white people are considered more important than black people. You can argue about how that's untrue but when you look at the doll selection at Toys R Us to the cast members of our most popular sitcoms we see a majority of white people being represented. So to his point it is 1000% TRUE that when issues affect non minority communities we tend to rush in with a solution (i.e. acknowledging the problem) than so for minority communities.
Again I apologize for your loss but the drug epidemic is real and I'll take whatever we can to help bring an end to the deaths and unfair sentencing by our judicial system, and create more resources for treatment.
Race and nationality doesn't matter.
By Anthony
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:37pm
By the way I am an American, African American. I was a little perplexed about your comments, statements and exactly what you are trying to convey. I wasn't quite sure what you are articulating about but, I'm gathering you are conveying the following in so many different words you're saying when it's people of color dying the government doesn't care when it's an affluent European clear people dying it's a state of emergency and it's a tbig deal.
However I'm pretty much color blind when it comes to anyone dying and it's always an emergency regardless who's dying or being murdered. Every person's life is precious every Bostonian life is precious to me.
Sorry you go by mass Ave by
By Tee
Thu, 09/15/2016 - 5:11pm
Sorry you go by mass Ave by Boston Medical the majority is Caucasian, more Caucasian on assistance then Spanish, Chinese and black people so cut the crap
I hear this alot
By Marco
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:27am
What I don't hear is how someone thinks throwing money at the problem will fix it. Or how the government can help. Real, concrete, reasons. More treatment centers? Awareness campaign? Early intervention programs? Does anyone realize that all these things are useless? Try throwing those kinds of solutions at nicotine addicts. NOT smoking, nicotine addicts. They still go to CVS for their patches you know, or to the new vape store. Smoking was curbed by making it illegal to do basically everywhere but your own home, and jacking the price of smokes to the point of making it a financial burden on those who smoke (generally poorer demographics).
Guess what? Opiates are already illegal. The problem is they CAN be almost cheaper than cigarettes, and there is NO regulation on them, and greedy dealers cut their product with god-knows-what to stretch their profits. These are the risks society takes when creating a black market for something. During prohibition many a man went blind on bathtub moonshine.
No, folks, there will always be addicts. Back at the turn of the century you could get this stuff in cough syrup, and plenty of people seemed to have persistent coughs back then, sucking away at their medicine bottles. At least the product was consistent and they knew what they were getting. Even then, overdoses happened.
You cannot legislate away addiction.
You cannot fund away misery and hopelessness.
Drug education starts in elementary school. No one who puts a needle in their arm can claim ignorance. They do it out of misery and/or desperation and/or boredom. Once you start it is a lifetime battle. Even when clean all it takes is a bad day in the right place and time. Jobs, security, and a sense of hope would go a long way at fighting addiction in this country, but no one is interested in that, just band aid everything. So ok if we're gonna Band-Aid it the solution is to make drugs legal, regulate them, and make drugs of a known quality/quantity available for the junkies. Let them overdo it and die or keep booting all the way to the poorhouse. Good for them I say. Funding programs and awareness campaigns and shooting galleries hasn't, isn't, and will never do anything to solve the problem. People like getting wasted, bottom line. The problem to be tackled is getting it to the point where it stops affecting everyone else. The easiest way to do that is to give them safe drugs to do and shoo them away to what ever den/hole/alley they are comfortable doing their drugs in, and away from the public. Crack down on croaker doctors over-prescribing the pills that get people started, and make the pharmaceutical companies who push them pay their fair share of cleaning up the mess they create. The government cannot do much more to curb this problem then they are already doing. More funds and more people on the ground does nothing to stop the root problems. It's like screaming to hire more janitors to clean up the streets of litter when the real solution is putting more trash barrels out and ticketing for littering.
...a lot.. not alot.
By grammarboy
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:54am
...a lot.. not alot.
where would
By Marco
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:50am
reasonable debate be without you grammarboy?
Right sentiment, wrong solution
By Russ
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 3:02pm
I don't see increased treatment making much of a dent in the OD crisis. First, it doesn't really work all that well. The numbers are really bad. They are only saving lives in the short term, while the addicts are actually there. But nevertheless treatment is meant as a long term solution. How does that address the current problem of fentanyl laced heroin, the root cause of the present crisis? This is a supply problem. That's where the solution is.
cracking down on supply has
By bractune
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 2:59am
cracking down on supply has really worked out well for us in the drug war, yea? like how this current heroin problem is due to cracking down on prescription medication? the real answer is the one that will never happen, which is to legalize all drugs.
I wish the dealers would
By maria c
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 6:08am
I wish the dealers would overdose. This is now at the DEA level.
Dealers?
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:13am
or Doctors?
Doctors prescribe heroin?
By Lmo
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:28am
Doctors prescribe heroin?
my understanding
By Malcolm Tucker
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:42am
People are prescribed, or overprescribed, opioids. They get hooked. They find that it's expensive on the street, so they go for heroin instead - but that's often laced with fentanyl, which is EXTREMELY dangerous. So no, doctors don't prescribe heroin. They are a link in the chain, more times than not.
Define over prescribed
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:45am
Other than the obvious script shopping and occasional rogue doctor.
When it is you in pain from a broken leg or a bad back, I doubt you would consider relief to be "overprescribed". In fact, there is strong evidence that people who have to use these drugs to function are now being unnecessarily harassed and deprived because OMG DOCTORS OVER PRESCRIBE WE MUST KEEP THEM IN LINE!!!!!
well
By Malcolm Tucker
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:45am
Anecdotes are not data, but here's what happened to me: I hurt my back last year, and I was prescribed 30 days' worth of Oxycontin, as well as 30 days' worth of 600-mg Ibuprofen. The idea was that I would take the Oxy just for a day or so, for "breakthrough pain," and then switch to Ibuprofen. I took one Oxy on my first night home from the hospital, and decided that it was WAY too strong. It would not have taken me long to form a dependency on it, had I kept taking it. Fortunately, my pain was manageable enough with the Ibuprofen, so I stopped taking the Oxy altogether. For some people, their pain is bad enough that they really do need something powerful like Oxy, but they don't need 30 days' worth. And yet, that's what I was given, despite not asking for it; and I bet that's what's given to other people, too.
Bizarre Comment
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 12:02pm
This is a very strange comment. This is not how addiction works at all! If you found it overwhelming, you weren't likely to become dependent at all!
People who are "wow - this is nice" are the ones who become dependent.
okay
By Malcolm Tucker
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 3:37pm
I will clarify further: the "too strong" was indeed "wow, this is nice." I've heard enough about these drugs, and know enough about my own tendencies, and figured my pain was manageable enough with other less addictive options, that I got rid of the Oxy. Thanks for telling me how I felt, though.
you were given 30 days worth,
By bractune
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 3:09am
you were given 30 days worth, and told to take it "just for a day or so"? that doesn't make any sense.
here's what happened to me: i had a kidney stone, they saw it on the ct scan. i had to continually tell doctors that no, ibuprofen was not helping it. they would then give me only a week's worth of percocet, low dose. if i still had a kidney stone a week later (which i did), i had to go all the way over to my doctor's office again to pick up a paper prescription for another week's worth (after being talked down to for not just taking advil).
i've never had any doctor dole out any prescription pain meds recklessly. i'd love to hear who your doctor is, they sound great and i'd love to see them!
don't worry though, you'll never have to be forced to get more than a week's worth of those evil pain meds again. thanks gubment! http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2016-a...
like I said, anecdote is not data
By Malcolm Tucker
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 10:52am
This is what the ER staff at a hospital gave me. Maybe that had something to do with it; maybe I was just "lucky."
There are certainly people
By Lmo
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 5:48pm
There are certainly people who are prescribed opiates that become addicted. If you had continued to take Oxyxontin and did become addicted; would you have any idea where to get heroin?
I'm trying to find statistics to compare those who were prescribed opiates and became addicted. As opposed to those who began taking Percocet, Klonopin, Oxycontin, etc. for fun and then moved on to Heroin.
I have no idea.
By Malcolm Tucker
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:59pm
And I'm glad I was never desperate enough to look.
Also teens are sniffing
By Metoo
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:15pm
Also teens are sniffing heroin then they move on to injecting it. This is why so many young people are hooked. Scary.
Heroin is illegal, which is why doctors don't prescribe it.
By mplo
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 7:17am
It's true that the Fentanyl that heroin is all too often laced with is just as dangerous, if not more so, than heroin. It's really unfortunate that so many doctors prescribe painkillers that are so addictive, to their patients. By doing that, an already-huge problem here in the United States (heroin addiction) has been intensified and magnified.
Sorry, but now the dealers
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 12:10pm
Sorry, but now the dealers are now manufacturing in multitudes the stuff that doctors can no longer prescribe. Fetnyl is now "homemade" by the dealers and compressed into pills now. Are you that naive? The new laws only clamp down on the doctors, not the root of the problem, which are the big dealers.
A prophecy for you
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:30am
When you get into a car accident, let's hope your doc looks at your compound fractures and says "eh, you can walk it off".
A doctor wouldn't tell
By Lmo
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 7:36pm
A doctor wouldn't tell someone with a compound leg fracture to "walk it off". That just makes no sense.
Thanks for for commenting Prophet Anon.
Dealers
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:43am
Dealers exist because demand exist.
Dealers aren't even the ones getting people hooked - that would be the pharmaceutical companies (which are putting big $$$ into killing legal weed initiatives, as legal weed cuts the use of OxyContin).
It isn't as simplistic and moralistic as you paint it to be - which is why moralizing at it is NOT working and never has, and why the problem doesn't get solved by massive oversimplification of the issue like you have just done.
Three overdose, one dies in Tremont Street Apartment
By mike
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 8:13am
This epidemic is also fueled by the rehab industry. The recidivism rate is (pun intended) super high. I do not think that spending more money on so called rehabilitation has proven helpful. To fund more education programs on restating the obvious that opiate usage is addictive does not seem to work. The bottom line is that illegal drug taking and abuse is illegal for a reason. As a citizen it makes me furious to see all the addicts camped out on the Boston Common, using the T as their sleeping quarters, committing crimes to support their habit, and transforming the Boston Medical Center into a scene from "The Walking Dead".
you poor baby
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:47am
You should really take off those histrionic alternate reality glasses. They are turning you into a moralizing Victorian.
Go watch reefer madness and calm down.
TROLL ALERT
By Cappy
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:27am
Go away. You're boring.
Are you wearing blinders?
By Sally
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 4:27pm
If you haven't noticed the persistent, obvious, massive uptick in addicts in all of these places, then maybe you're the one who needs glasses. The area around the BMC has become a total Hamsterdam
Zombieland of users and dealers; downtown is worse than I've ever seen it.
Yes, the rehab industry is a
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 6:08pm
Yes, the rehab industry is a failure, so let's reinstitute a policy that's been a failure for 40+ years.
it's not just a failure, it's
By bractune
Tue, 09/13/2016 - 3:11am
it's not just a failure, it's a fraud.
What's the gateway?
By Scauma
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:18am
If any to this relatively new epidemic? Seems like this has become a problem all over the country over the last half decade or so.
The gateway is prescription
By ZachAndTired
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:31am
The gateway is prescription painkillers. 80% of heroin addicts initially got hooked on things like oxycontin.
No such thing as a gateway
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 9:45am
The gateway is a person's susceptibility to addiction.
If it wasn't painkillers it would be something else. No one drug is a gateway.
I disagree. It has been well
By ZachAndTired
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:30am
I disagree. It has been well documented that the current epidemic of opiate addictions is directly influenced by the overprescription of opioids for pain relief. Somebody who got hooked on painkillers because they hurt their back most likely wouldn't have gotten into heroin via some other avenue.
Please show us your document well
By anon
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 10:40am
If it is "well documented".
Overprescribed? You realize that people in pain get sick from pain too, dear.
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