The Gloucester ANGEL Initiative was featured in the Boston Globe on Feb. 19. Gloucester state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante has filed a bill, An Act relative to persons seeking drug addiction treatment, which is now before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, to help those suffering with the disease of addiction.
The bill states, “A person who, in good faith, enters a police station and seeks assistance or treatment for a person present at such police station suffering from a drug-related addiction, or a person who, in good faith, enters a police station and seeks assistance or treatment for a drug-related addiction, or is the subject of a good faith request for such assistance or treatment, shall not be charged or prosecuted for possession of a controlled substance under sections 34 or 35, or possession of drug paraphernalia under section 32I, if the evidence for such charge of possession was gained as a result of the seeking of assistance or treatment.”
If passed, a program similar to the ANGEL Initiative would be implemented at all police stations in the state.
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