Methadone Mile: Inside Boston's Drug Epidemic

"Two of my uncles and my cousin are out here right now. I'm hoping I can run into them. Right now, I'm spreading love through food."

"Addiction has to do, a lot of times, with untreated trauma or untreated anxiety and depression in your life. These people need mental health care. I don't know how these people manage to do it if they're living on the streets – no health insurance, no job, no supportive community. We've really got to meet them where they are … getting them on medical therapy is the first step and making sure they're not going to overdose."

"The recovery process off of opiates is awful ... First of all, you're physically addicted and it's miserable to come off the opiates ... When you get addicted, your emotional connection, unfortunately, becomes with the drug itself and you tune out other people. So, the minute you take the drug away you're very lonely and you're just kind of stuck in this awful place. And third of all, you're dealing with all the chaos that you've created in your life."

"I had a bad vision of harm reduction before, but I think now the scope is, we'd rather have the person alive on harm reduction than pass away. My only thing with harm reduction is most people get on it, but they struggle to get off."^3,4

"It feels almost like we're watching the decay of America in slow motion. I mean, we're this rich, prosperous country but we have these cities with all these addicts out in the street. We have abandoned buildings with wooden boards over the windows. It's almost embarrassing because when most countries think of America, they don't think of this."

¹ "Mass and Cass" (Massachusetts Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd) became a central hub for Boston's opioid crisis following the 2014 abrupt closure of the Long Island Bridge, which housed 800+ people in shelters and treatment programs. Its closure forced residents back to the city's, specifically the South End's, existing service providers, causing a concentrated encampment area.
² Opioid pharmaceutical marketing, led by Purdue Pharma's 1996 launch of OxyContin, aggressively promoted long-acting opioids for chronic non-cancer pain, shifting from strict, short-term usage paradigms. Misleading tactics—including overstating safety, downplaying addiction risks, and funding biased educational materials—drove widespread prescribing, fueling a major public health crisis, resulting in exponential overdose increases, and leading to billions in corporate settlements.
³ Harm reduction is grounded in a set of public health principles that emphasize pragmatism, respect, and human rights. It recognizes that drug use exists across societies and focuses on reducing harm rather than eliminating use entirely. Core principles include meeting people where they are without requiring abstinence, providing non-judgmental and voluntary services, prioritizing individual health and well-being, and involving people who use drugs in the design and delivery of policies and interventions that affect them.
⁴ Clinical evidence shows that discontinuing opioid agonist treatments such as methadone or buprenorphine is associated with high relapse rates, particularly when tapering occurs too quickly or without adequate support. Long-term maintenance therapy has been consistently linked to improved stability and reduced mortality, and for many individuals, ongoing treatment is recommended due to the chronic, relapsing nature of opioid use disorder.