opioids Archives

Meet The Massachusetts Advocate Challenging The Opioid Recovery Establishment

“The systems that refuse to evolve, that cling to nearly 100-year-old faith-based pseudoscience … are a huge part of why we can’t seem to solve this problem”

CHRIS FARAONE December 15, 2025

Gun Violence Prevention Grant Puts Opioid Settlement Funds Back In Communities

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is spending its settlement funds from the consulting giant McKinsey on nonprofits working on gun violence prevention, urban farming, and food access

JACOB SCHLES November 2, 2025

No Opioid Settlement Funds Going To Massachusetts Prisons

The commonwealth will receive more than a billion dollars for opioid remediation—none of it is for the state’s most vulnerable drug-dependent population

CHRIS FARAONE October 7, 2025

This Company Paid Massachusetts Opioid Settlement Funds, And Has Had Millions In State Contracts Since

The consulting giant McKinsey continued its work advising Mass on healthcare and other matters after paying for “illegal and dangerous partnership with Purdue Pharma”

JACOB SCHLES September 21, 2025

Video: Spare Change News And The Legacy Of Street Media

An interview with longtime Spare Change columnist and poet Marc Goldfinger

BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM July 1, 2025

Mass Municipalities Are Sitting On Millions Meant To Mitigate The Opioid Scourge

In some cases, our investigation found cities and towns using opioid abatement dollars to fund law enforcement

JONATHAN GERHARDSON April 15, 2025

(Left to Right): Paul Hammersley, founder of Malden Cares, recovery coaches Kenny Gumes, Sandra Wood and PJ Bell. The Malden Cares recovery coaches go around Malden, knocking on doors to provide residents with addiction recovery resources. Photo courtesy of Malden Cares/Paul Hammersley.

Malden Cares Offers Recovery Lifeline

The organization, which works out of the Health and Human Services Department, has helped cut opioid overdose numbers in half since it began in 2021

EMMA SIEBOLD January 9, 2025

THE WAITING GAME

He’s been to shelters, he has a case worker, doctors will help him—but how much longer can he wait? Meet Billy, one of the many sources informing “Cambridge Unhoused,” who sells Spare Change News in Central Square

CHRIS FARAONE December 5, 2023

IN MASS, A LACK OF COORDINATION HAMPERS EFFORTS TO HELP THE UNHOUSED

“We don’t have a network of communication between the communities, so it’s very easy for people to slip through the cracks, which is not good for them.”

ADAM SENNOTT November 16, 2023

HOUSING FIRST IN MASSACHUSETTS, EXPLAINED

Studies show that permanent supportive housing works, including in Massachusetts. Here’s how it has worked so far, how it could work on a larger scale, and what’s holding it back.

COHAVIT GIL November 9, 2023