From Mayor Scott Galvin’s Office:
Today, I am announcing that I have joined with 27 mayors from across Massachusetts to push for a federal law change to allow the Drug Enforcement Agency to pursue inappropriate wholesale prescription drug distribution, which fuels the opioid addiction epidemic that has afflicted cities throughout the Commonwealth and across the country.
“For the past several years, we and members of our communities have attended the funerals of friends, and the funerals of the children of friends, with sickening regularity,” the mayors wrote. “What we need and demand on the federal level is a Congress that will prioritize our families over the drug industry, a DEA with the enforcement authority and tools it needs to crack down on illegal corporate drug activity; and a drug czar committed to helping us in our fight instead of supporting industry profit at the expense of our children.”
In addition, on behalf of the City of Woburn I have entered into an agreement with the law firm of Rodman Rodman & Sandman to join in multi-district litigation which seeks to hold corporations that manufacture and distribute opioids responsible for the burdens that opioids have placed on Woburn, and other communities.
The letter, addressed to the President and Congress, urges that:
- The next nominee for the nation’s drug czar be free of financial or other connections to the prescription drug distribution industry, and be of unassailable professional and personal character; and
- That Congress repeal and replace the April 2016 law, passed through a parliamentary procedure without debate, that stripped the DEA of critical enforcement authority; the new law must give the DEA the authority to protect the interests of the public and simply cannot be bought and paid for by the legal drug distribution industry.
The list of signatories includes:
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Mayor Richard Cohen, Agawam Mayor Michael P. Cahill, Beverly Mayor Joseph C. Sullivan, Braintree Mayor Bill Carpenter, Brockton Mayor E. Denise Simmons, Cambridge City Manager Thomas G. Ambrosino, Chelsea Mayor Carlo DeMaria, Everett Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II, Fall River Mayor Stephen L. DiNatale, Fitchburg Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, Gloucester Mayor William F. Martin, Greenfield Mayor James F. Fiorentini, Haverhill Mayor Dan Rivera, Lawrence Mayor Gary Christenson, Malden
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Mayor Arthur Vigeant, Marlborough Mayor Stephanie Muccini Burke, Medford Mayor Robert J. Dolan, Melrose Mayor Jon Mitchell, New Bedford Mayor Donna D. Holaday, Newburyport Mayor Setti Warren, Newton Mayor Richard J. Alcombright, North Adams Mayor Ted Bettencourt, Peabody Mayor Linda M. Tyer, Pittsfield Mayor Brian M. Arrigo, Revere Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Springfield Mayor Thomas C. Hoye, Jr., Taunton Mayor William Reichelt, West Springfield Mayor Scott D. Galvin, Woburn
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