Overview
- Police reported five overdoses in a single weekend with three fatalities, a toll also acknowledged by the Middlesex district attorney’s office.
- Investigators suspect a dangerous batch in the local drug supply, have not identified the victims, and have announced no arrests tied to the cases.
- Free naloxone and fentanyl test strips are available at Somerville Public Libraries, with 24/7 health vending machines at the West Branch Library and Project Soup stocking both.
- City alerts went out in six languages as outreach teams and social workers fan out to warn residents, with advocates urging people not to use alone and to call 911 for suspected overdoses.
- Since their November launch, the city’s public health vending machines have dispensed about 75 boxes of naloxone and logged roughly 1,100 uses, while Boston Police report no similar spike or known bad batch in Boston.