By Frank Bonet
Recently, a top Massachusetts law enforcement official of the federal government stated that Lawrence has become a pipeline for heroin and fentanyl distribution. Supposedly, Lawrence is being exploited because of the city’s location to two interstate highways making it easier as a jump-off point.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you believe this nonsensical explanation (that Lawrence is an easy jump-off location), then you are just as ignorant of what is exactly causing the city to be used as a hub for drugs, and it’s not that the primary reason that Lawrence is near two major highways. Just look at Worcester with I90 and I495 highways, Boston with many major highways, Tewksbury with the same I495 and I93 highways that run on opposite sides of the City of Lawrence, or even Foxborough with Interstate 95 and I495 on its side. They have the same easy jump-offs as Lawrence and Methuen have and technically I93 borders Methuen not Lawrence.
I am not stating that Lawrence is not a problem. I mean even Lawrence residents have known that Lawrence has a drug distribution problem. We’ve known that for many years. But based on the FBI in 2019, Lawrence was not even on the top-ten list of most dangerous cities in Massachusetts. Albeit, Lawrence was not on the top-ten best cities to live in Massachusetts, either.
The most likely reason that Lawrence is used as a hub for drugs is not because we are an easy jump-off point, but because of lack of opportunities. Lack of nearby employment for its residents, lack of opportunities to own affordable homes due to subprime lending that continues to keep people of color down, lack of proper school funding, lack of drug recovery centers, lack of almost every other benefit that communities of wealth or better position have more than Lawrence, lack of business opportunity, racism, etc.
One thing that I did not hear from that top federal law enforcement say is that the biggest thief and distributor of opioid is a pharmacy technician from Salem and Peabody, Massachusetts. Just this week the charges against her were reduced from theft to obtaining drugs by fraud just so the prosecutors could keep the charges from being a felony. The DA actually said that! If you or anyone else in the DAs or State Police believes that she used more than 20,000 pills for self-medication and tossed the rest into the toilet – you have no idea on how to fight the war on drugs. This is just how whiteness works. Representative Paul Tucker (D-Salem) said he was “shocked” to learn about the size and scope of the alleged pill theft, and agrees that more oversight is needed to ensure prescription opioids don’t end up in the streets. Well, what a great plan – Not! Not once did he castigate the person for doing so; because she resides in his district. However, would have been a Lawrencian that stole all that opioid pills, the Rep would probably be passing a bill right about now and the poor Lawrencian would have federal charges and possibly a death sentence!
Furthermore, let’s not blame city law enforcement or any law enforcement for that matter. Many of us keep placing so much stress on our law enforcement officials to take care of everything that is wrong with our city when we should be demanding it from our elected officials in the State and in the Federal government. We can’t expect for Lawrence Police to be counselors, social workers, overdose reversers, helping community member find jobs, driving victims of penetrating trauma to emergency rooms, and more hats than just solving or preventing crime. If, for some officers, the transition from an enforcer of the law to a pseudo-social worker/paramedic is not a welcome one, if the added tasks contribute to burnout, if training is costly, and if officers aren’t the best-trained people to be on the frontline of social issues such as homelessness and widespread addiction, then maybe it is time that our elected leaders begin a task force to deal with the issue.
We only have ourselves to blame for this. I’ve lived in Lawrence for many years and have fallen into the trap of believing our local, state and federal politicians saying they will help. Lawrence is tired of waiting while the politicians just either pocket money, take care of their own, help open businesses for their friends, keep arguing with Trump, ask voters for money to enrich their campaigns coffers, while Lawrence just waits.
To even attempt to solve the problem of addiction means that we need to take a closer look at the location and our community where substance abuse trafficking reigns supreme, whether due to abject poverty or a thriving prescription painkiller black market or something else.
People in poverty are exposed to severe, chronic stressors within the communities and immediate social networks which increase vulnerability to psychological distress and problem with drugs and alcohol. Those chronic stressors could just be about anything that the people of Lawrence go through on a daily basis: hunger, illness, loss of family, loss of structure, loss of home, loss of employment, etc. There is abundant data to support the connection between socioeconomic factors, addiction and recovery, drug dealing, etc. It is even further known of decades of survey data also show that the addiction rate, and the drug dealing rate, among the unemployed is usually around twice as high as among those who have jobs.
Neither the federal government nor the Commonwealth, can hide from its deep poverty crisis. For Lawrence it was one of the reasons why its residents wanted to send a representative to Washington (Juana Matias), because we are not being heard. Our voices are not reaching those that could and should help. We are only now being heard because the sounds of addiction are hitting other wealthy or better positioned cities and towns. But those towns are not hearing what we are saying = they have selective listening to only accuse Lawrence of their woes. It is now affecting those cities and towns, but we (Lawrence) have been fighting this fight for quite some time. Allowing our police officers to arrest their way through this problem won’t cut it. Lawrence parents have been shielding their children from the opposed and negative undervalues of others, which if you ask is just another stress factor induced on our children (living in a community that is a land mine of negative roads).
Lawrence needs an overall better plan that encompasses every agency, every politician and every city and town in Massachusetts. Your town or city may not know how it could fall into a plan for Lawrence, but you better believe me, you should know. You should also know that it’s not an illegal or undocumented issue; it’s not a race issue, or gender issue. It’s an underprivileged issue, where politicians treat Lawrence like crap but come back in to the city (with local politicians) to get your votes. Lawrence is the 13th most populated cities in Massachusetts (18th most populated in New England).
Lawrence is the second most populated city in Essex County, behind Lynn. Lowell, even though not in the Essex County but in Middlesex County has a little over 100,000 residents. Lawrence, what I am saying is that you’ve got the needed votes and you’ve have strength. But, you must use your strength if you want what you deserve from the elected officials to hear you and do something. Register and vote.
Furthermore, let’s not say collaboration has been occurring. That faux collaboration is asking a lot of opinions to give the appearance of collaboration and then doing what you were going to do in the first place. We’ve all been in those meetings or been to those events.
I have never been one for the soft hitting with words. I never learned how, I was trained from the age of 17, by the military, to say it loud and forget how it will hurt or who it will hurt. I hit hard but mean well. People of Lawrence, stop letting yourselves be used.
