It’s not often where there is a war of words between a governor and a mayor of neighboring state. Yet, that’s what happened last week between New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Mayor Daniel Rivera of Lawrence, Mass., when discussing who’s to blame for the Northeast’s growing opioid crisis.
“It’s coming from Lawrence,” Sununu said Wednesday at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “Eighty-five percent of the fentanyl in this state is coming straight out of Lawrence, Massachusetts.”
He also pointed to Lawrence again in an interview later that day with Boston Herald Radio, saying the city’s status as a “sanctuary city” is causing problems for New Hampshire.
Sununu said he had a meeting with other New England governors when they met in Washington D.C. for the National Governors Association annual winter meetings.
“I sat down with [Massachusetts Gov.] Charlie Baker and all the governors from the New England regions and said we’re going to cross borders, you better get ready,” Sununu said. “I’m working with the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] in Bedford, working with the DEA in Boston, our state police, their state police.”
Sununu then vowed that “we’re going in.”
“We’re going to get tough on these guys, and I want to scare every dealer that wants to come across that border,” he said. “We’re not giving dealers nine months on parole and probation anymore. We’re putting them away for the five, 10 and 15 years that they deserve.”
Sununu’s “tough on drugs” rhetoric makes sense — albeit an interesting political move to pick a battle with a town in another state. He’s the first Republican governor in 12 years and the opioid crisis is still rampant in New Hampshire. He campaigned on the epidemic being the number one priority the state faces and depending on what he does to curb the crisis in his two-year term, could be a factor in his 2018 reelection campaign.
Despite several media reports about the subsequent back-and-forth between Sununu and Rivera, there is some legitimacy in Sununu’s claim about Lawrence being a hot bed of activity for heroin and fentanyl.
Most of the heroin coming to New England originates in Colombia and travels through Mexico, according to a 2013 report from The New York Times. Despite an increase in the number of seizures along the southern U.S. border, enough is still getting through to major distribution centers, including Philadelphia and New York, which then makes its way into northern New England, “often through Lowell, Lawerence, and Holyoke, Mass.”
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary, most heroin supplies in the New England region are brought in from New York along the vast interstate highway system, naming I-95 and I-93 as the major routes for New Hampshire’s heroin trafficking routes. The report also named Lawrence as a main distribution center for northern New England states.
“Massachusetts also serves as a staging area or interim transportation point for heroin being transported north,” the report states. “Lawrence and Lowell, north of Boston, are distribution centers for northern New England and Canada. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are supplied with heroin chiefly by drug groups in northeastern Massachusetts, particularly in Lawrence and Lowell.”
Western Massachusetts is one of the staging areas for distribution in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire because drug dealers from those states who want the product have to drive to Massachusetts to get it because drug penalties in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire are stricter in the three northern New England states.
Because Lawrence sits on the I-93 highway, police have said many drug deals occur at fast-food restaurants off the highway exits.
It is so widely known that Lawrence is a main distributor for the opioid crisis, that even Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said it to the Times in 2016.
“Massachusetts is the epicenter for the heroin/fentanyl trade,” she said. “From Lawrence, it’s being trafficked and sold all over the New England states.”
For example, undercover detectives followed a car on a heroin buying mission from Manchester to Lawrence and back on Sept. 15, 2015, which resulted in one arrest.
Still, despite these reports and former statements that show Lawrence is a main distributor of heroin and fentanyl for New England, Rivera took offense that Sununu called out his city.
“Just like the President is finding out that health care is complicated, I think that the governor is going to find out that this is a complicated issue,” Rivera said in a hastily scheduled press conference on Thursday. “I’m not sure that he meant to threaten the sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but he did.”
One of the major problems Rivera had was with Sununu’s claim that 85 percent of the fentanyl entering New Hampshire came from Lawrence.
“I would ask you guys to ask him where he got that number from,” he charged reporters. “I don’t know if it’s a true number. I think the problem is if you think like ‘oh you snuff out what’s happening in Lawrence, it will all go away.’ I know he’s only been on the job 60 days, but the reality is it’s like water, it will find another place to go.”
Rivera and Sununu eventually spoke on Thursday afternoon, and Sununu released a statement after the call.
“The Mayor and his local law enforcement personnel have been doing a good job on this issue, but we must recognize this is a cross-border problem that requires cross-border solutions,” Sununu said. “It has no geographic boundaries and it remains incumbent upon all of us to come together and work collaboratively across our borders along with federal, state and local law enforcement.”
Sununu’s office has not offered any evidence of his “85-percent” claim, but regardless, Lawrence’s role in the opioid crisis cannot be disputed.
Baker, the Massachusetts governor, weighed in on the controversy, and said, “I do view this as a problem that affects us all and I think singling out a single community or a single state is not accurate.”
New Hampshire Senate Democratic Leader Jeff Woodburn offered his two cents.
“Instead of antagonizing key regional partners in our collective fight to combat the devastating effects of the opioid crisis, Governor Sununu should be fighting for our state’s successful Medicaid expansion program which has helped over 100,000 Granite Staters gain access to mental health and substance abuse treatment,” he said in a statement. “New Hampshire needs steady and serious leadership from the Governor’s office that focuses on a holistic approach to solving this public health crisis, not reckless, cavalier comments.”
RE: “Despite several media reports about the subsequent back-and-forth between Sununu and Rivera, there is some legitimacy in Sununu’s claim. .. ”
What do “subsequent media reports” have to do with it? I suggest simply stating that Sununu’s claim has merit. All regional police departments and mayors know that Lawrence and Lowell are drug distribution centers. Stating the obvious aloud doesn’t solve the problem, but it’s a necessary part of starting to solve it.
I’m getting a little tired of reading about all the details of how the drugs are coming into the country, and to NH, especially since, as the article states, it has been widely publicized since 2013, and with virtually NOTHING happening under Obama and Democratic Governors or Law Enforcement in NH to stop the supply.
It’s only about TREATMENT apparently, with millions of dollars for that and creating a whole new Industry to take care of addicts.
Frank Guinta, when head of the Congressional Task Force on drugs, admitted they “catch less than 5% of the drugs coming over the Southern border!
Less than 5% !!!
Clearly NOTHING was done at the border, or at all levels in most States FOR YEARS.
New Hampshire’s former Drug Czar stated, before he was fired, that “drugs are available on virtually every Main Street of every City and Town in NH. I Guess the Governor canned him for not being a “team player” and stating the truth,
Only 1 conclusion after 40 years of this: The pay offs go all the way to the top and NO ONE WANTS TO STOP THE DRUG FLOWS.
Trump at least signed a new executive order to go after the cartels and major suppliers, and to stop both ILLEGAL DRUGS and ILLEGAL ENTRANTS at the border. .MAYBE we will finally make some progress.
But clearly the situation in Lawrence and the other cities are now WELL KNOWN, and all they will say is that if the demand will stop, the drugs will stop. Of course they have it conveniently wrong again.
NO DRUG SUPPLY, then NO PROBLEMS.
Right now we have pay offs apparently going all the way to the top of the law enforcement and political chains for the drugs.
And pay offs to big business by letting in millions of ILLEGAL PEOPLE to take our jobs.
Even our NH prisons are “drug infested,” with most national publications stating that the prison staffs are usually the most responsible for getting the drugs into the prisons. But not to mention it. Go after all the visitors with body searches instead!
No other conclusions as to why the problems have not been solved are possible.
So President Trump and Governor Sununu, maybe we can COUNT ON YOU to kick some fannies and show some STRONG, POSITIVE LEADERSHIP with law enforcement at all levels and getting them to DO THEIR JOBS that we are paying them to do.
Stop the hand wringing. You sell drugs to someone that dies, you go to court, and if found guilty, we HANG YOU IN NH. Get that message out to the kids and both buyers and sellers. Won’t take too long for them to get the message.
You will never stop the problem until you seriously stop the supply. And clearly too many DO NOT WANT IT STOPPED. QED
Thanks Governor for finally starting to make a difference. Can’t solve a problem until you identified it, and you just did. Keep up the good work!
PS: We also read about HUGE amounts of drugs coming in from China via the US Postal Service. No forms necessary for a package. Just send them. Congress knows, and has been “working on changing the law” for a year. JUST GET IT DONE! Or will we continue to read about it for years and years with no action.
When nothing happens to solve obvious problems, look behind the curtain. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is US.”