Issue: Ending the Drug Crisis: No More Needles, No More Excuses
The State of Massachusetts and the City of Boston, along with other municipalities, have failed to combat the drug crisis that plagues our state. This has utterly destroyed the neighborhoods of hardworking and taxpaying Americansin our state. From used needles being scattered across the sidewalks where we walk, to the playgrounds where children play. To public defecation, urination, and sex playing out in front of our eyes like a horror movie. Nonprofit detox centers, even though some mean well, are taking advantage of the drug crisis to turn their facilities into revolving doors where they continue to get cash from the government with no incentive to solve the problem.
Instead of fixing the problem, the State of Massachusetts is proposing so-called "safe injection sites." The Boston Health Commission hands out more than 80,000 needles every month, and there are publicly funded vending machines that provide drug-use kits. These kits even include tools that allow addicts to take drugs in ways other than injection, including rectal administration—something that shows how far government-funded harm-reduction policies have gone in enabling addiction rather than ending it.
Drug dealers the dealers of death are benefiting from overwhelmed police departments and lenient District Attorneys who refuse to enforce the law and hold them accountable. Families are being destroyed while politicians and bureaucrats hand out supplies that make it easier to get high and harder to recover.
As Your Congressman:
I will work with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declare a public health emergency in Massachusetts for drug addiction and the mental health crisis it has caused.
I will work with the Department of Health and Human Services to propose converting a decommissioned ship into a Federal Floating Hospital for Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Recovery treatment facility in Boston Harbor. This facility will provide intensive 90-day treatment, mental health services, detoxification, and recovery housing on a federal vessel operated by federal medical teams.
I will work with the Department of Health and Human Services to expand federal authority under Massachusetts' Section 35 involuntary commitment law, allowing federal law enforcement officers, federal public health officials, and federal prosecutors to file commitment petitions. During a federal public health emergency declaration, these federal petitioners will work with Massachusetts courts to commit individuals with substance use disorders and serious risk of harm to treatment at the federal floating hospital.
I will deploy federal law enforcement to my district. I will work with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to bring DEA task forces, FBI agents, and federal prosecutors to flood my district and go after major drug dealers, human traffickers, and cartel operatives who profit from poisoning our communities. These are people dealing death.
I will introduce federal legislation establishing mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl distribution: 20 years minimum for a first offense, 40 years for a second offense, and life without parole for a third offense. For dealers whose fentanyl causes overdose deaths, I will establish automatic life sentences under felony murder provisions. Fentanyl is a killing agent; dealers should face penalties proportional to the deaths they cause.
I will use my congressional powers to end all federal funding for health departments and nonprofits that distribute needles and drug paraphernalia. Federal funds should support recovery, not enable addiction.
I will introduce legislation to end federal funding for nonprofits that operate detox and rehabilitation centers.No more revolving-door programs where nonprofits enrich themselves, and don’t solve the problem their mission states.
I will work with the Department of Justice to aggressively prosecute major drug dealers under federal statutes with enhanced penalties, targeting cartel operations, synthetic fentanyl manufacturers, and large-scale distributors. Federal prosecution will ensure serious consequences for those destroying our neighborhoods.