Around New England

Manchester Offering Free Lyft Rides To Drug Clinic for Addicts — Even If They’re From Out of Town

Manchester Offering Free Lyft Rides To Drug Clinic for Addicts — Even If They’re From Out of Town

Matthew McDonald

Each fire station in Manchester, New Hampshire is designated a Safe Station, meaning firefighters will offer a medical assessment of a drug addict, disposal of needles and drugs, and transportation to "an appropriate level medical facility," which often means a drug treatment center in Manchester; the board of aldermen voted to appropriate $10,000 to provide free Lyft rides from fire stations to the drug treatment center, which prompted one alderman, Leo O'Neil, to challenge whether it's appropriate for towns and cities and nonprofit organizations outside of Manchester to send drug addicts there. "I am speaking for myself, but I am done with the City of Manchester being the savior for other communities in the state and Manchester shouldering the financial burden of paying for these services when people are sent to Manchester from other communities," O'Neil wrote in an email message, according to The Union Leader.

Around New England

Needham Stabbing Slaying Suspect ‘Was Out of His Mind,’ Father Says

Matthew McDonald

Benjamin Walsh, 24, stabbed his 20-year-old girlfriend to death at the apartment in Needham they shared and then drove to an Italian restaurant in Millis and stabbed his parents, wounding them, police said. Walsh's father gave an interview to Boston 25 saying his son had had problems with mental health and substance abuse in the past, but nothing like the horrific violence Saturday night; the father was treated in an emergency room for stab wounds, while the mother, who had been stabbed in the gut, was listed in serious condition.

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