Healey says ‘much more’ can be done to address illegal guns

May 7, 2019 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey spoke to students and staff at Holyoke Community College.
Reminder Publishing photo by G. Michael Dobbs

HOLYOKE – Attorney General Maura Healey said her office has undertaken several efforts to address the still raging opioid addiction epidemic in the Commonwealth.

Healey made her remarks at a public meeting at Holyoke Community College (HCC). She met with students studying criminal justice, human services and nursing in the PeoplesBank Conference Room in HCC Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development

Healey said her office has worked to make Narcan – the drug that can counter the effects of an overdose – more available. She added she has sought $3 million to pay police overtime, as well as having helped develop an educational program about addiction for schools.

“We need to stop addiction before it sets in,” she told the standing-room-only audience. She also explained the Commonwealth is suing six pharmaceutical firms for how they marketed opioids to physicians. The cost the addiction epidemic has had on the Commonwealth has been $15 billion, she noted.

Not only is Healey suing Purdue Pharma, she is suing the family that owns the company for how it marketed opioids. She added some of the firms, having contributed to the problem, are now interested in getting into the treatment solutions.

Healey said the marketing of opioids is directly tied to an increase of overdoes and the rise of heroin.

Speaking about gun violence, Healey said that every day 100 Americans are killed by a firearm, 60 percent of those are suicides. She described herself as someone who respects the Second Amendment, but believes in the laws in the Commonwealth that regulate guns.

She said she supports local police chiefs as person to determine if a citizen should have a carry permit. Healey will continue to defend the Commonwealth’s ban on assault weapons.

Healey is working with the organization Sandy Hook Promise to bring a program to 140,000 students that would help prevent gun violence.

Although Massachusetts requires background checks, Healey noted that 60 percent of the guns in the Commonwealth are from other states.

“Obviously there’s more work to be done … we can do much more,” she said.

Healey said there is “constant work” in trying to make the criminal justice system more fair. She used the example of how someone convicted of a cannabis violation lost his driver’s license, which made it difficult him to find a job.

Healey supports diversion programs for some offenses to keep people out of jail and to address the root causes of problems.

Share this: