Springfield debates stricter laws to stop drug dealing near parks, schools following shutdown of trafficking operation

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5 days ago

SPRINGFIELD — With a continuing increase in overdoses, a never-ending problem of used needles littering parks and a May bust that shut down a major drug trafficking operation, the city is looking at trying to bring back a law that charged dealers for peddling drugs near schools and parks.
The City Council's Health and Human Service and Public Safety committees are teaming up to try to find a way to restore a law that made it illegal to sell drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. The charge came with a two-year mandatory minimum sentence, said City Councilor Brian Santaniello, chairman of the health and human service committee.
'I'm not here to give drug dealers business hours,' City Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce said. 'It seems like this rule benefits the people who are committing the crimes and we wonder why we have stuff like this happening through the city.'
The law was changed in 2012 to reduce the zone to 300 feet for schools and 100 feet for parks and it cut the time it could be in effect to between 5 a.m. and midnight. Three years later, it further limited arrests to dealers who threatened to or used violence with a weapon, said Springfield Lt. Jamie Bruno.
'We are going to go out and get information and find out what other cities have done,' he said.
Once the research is completed, Santaniello said he expects the City Council will try to change the law or create an ordinance. It will likely do so through the home rule petition process, which will need approval from the state legislature.
In Springfield, the number of reported overdoses continue to rise although the number of fatalities have decreased because of the widespread availability of naloxone, the drug which reverses opioid overdoses, said Helen Caulton-Harris, health and human services commissioner.
'Fentanyl is the number one challenge … it is a huge problem for the city of Springfield and the commonwealth,' she said.
Not only is heroin being cut with the drug, now tests are finding it in cocaine and even black market marijuana. Also concerning is the increasing discovery of xylazine, a horse tranquilizer and a powerful sedative, being used to cut heroin and other drugs, Caulton-Harris said.
'Narcan (the brand name of naxalone) will work on fentanyl but it will have no effect on zylazine and other additives,' she said.
But it isn't just overdoses. It is the needles people discard after using drugs that are found littered throughout parks and even on school playgrounds.
'They are everywhere … You can fill a truck with it,' said Thomas Ashe, director of parks, buildings and recreation management.
The amount of needles and other drug paraphernalia staff find and pick up early in the morning is 'alarming' and that is a time when the parks are used by runners, walkers and families who bring their children, he said. It is especially problematic in the Metro Center area, Ashe said.
Click-Bruck, the Ward 5 councilor who is also a coach at Duggan Academy, said some of his students have found needles.
The issue came to the forefront last month after a two-year, multi-pronged investigation into drug trafficking between here and New York City netted 52 arrests, 45 seized guns, more than 12,000 grams of cocaine and 350 grams of fentanyl.
During an announcement of the law enforcement actions, Hampden District Anthony D. Gulluni said the investigation identified two local businesses, Garcia Market, 344 Orange St., and the neighboring Angel's Used Appliances, on White Street, as a front for the drug trafficking operation.
'It could cause quite a significant amount of overdoses,' Bruno said. 'What is also alarming is when you get a large amount of cocaine with the fentanyl you can cross contaminate both illegal substances … which can cause an overdose and accidental death.'
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and members of the committee have called for the shutdown of the two businesses.
'We have decided to leave it to the mayor and the law department,' Santaniello said.
Read the original article on MassLive.