Boston examining impacts of heroin injection sites

BOSTON — Boston officials are exploring the potential impacts of so-called "safe injection sites" where drug addicts can use heroin under medical supervision.

The City Council has called a Monday hearing in City Hall. It comes as the Massachusetts Medical Society is urging state officials to open at least two safe injection sites.

The state Department of Public Health says an average of six people a day have fatally overdosed on opioids in 2017, making it the state's top cause of accidental death so far this year.

City Councilors Anissa Essaibi-George and Frank Baker, who requested the hearing, say safe injection sites reduced fatal opioid overdoses by 35 percent in Vancouver, Canada.

But the councilors also say the sites are "controversial and wrought with medical, ethical and legal questions" communities should explore.

Cox Media Group