City Of Boston Observes Overdose Awareness Day And Recovery Month

WBZ NewsRadio’s Mike Macklin reports.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a sea of purple flags that covers a section
of Boston Common just across Beacon Street from the State House,
more than twenty two thousand in all, each flag representing
a victim of an unintentional drug overdose. It's an epidemic
Massachusetts declared a public health crisis more than a decade ago,
but finally there's progress in the effort to reduce the

(00:20):
staggering numbers. Boston's Public Health Commissioner, doctor Bisola Ojukuzu, we use.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Opioid settlement dollars to establish a Family Overdose Support Fund
to provide financial support to families who've lost loved ones.
My understanding is that this is the first in this
country using opioid settlement dollars. We also used opioid settlement
dollars to fund community based organizations in neighborhoods like Roxbury
and Dorchester with some of the highest overdose rates in
our city.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's an epidemic that has spared no community nor a
segment of the population. But thanks to everyone's efforts, there's
finally hope on Boston Common. Mike Maclin WBZ, Boston's news
radio