Photo: Jared Brosnan/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Residents in Boston have grown concerned with drug sales and use in their neighborhoods while discarded needles are scattered in the streets.
Some residents like Tony Asciutto in Boston's South End have created their own neighborhood watch and report when they see a drug sale, drug use, and other criminal activity.
Asciutto called on the city to focus on public housing building and the crimes he alleged happen there. He told WBZ NewsRadio reporter James Rojas, "if you and I had been here three months ago we would have seen drug sales and drug activity."
According to a local researcher who reviewed 311 data, the number of reported needle pickups have gone up by 20% since last year in the area. The data shows drug use around Mass and Cass is increasing and spreading to more areas of the city, including Roxbury, Dorchester, and Back Bay.
Some residents are most concerned about the drug sales. "We are upset by how that needle got there, the fact that there is drug trade going on in public buildings, centered in public buildings, leading to people doing drugs on the street in this area and leaving needles," Asciutto said.
"These people who are using needles for their drugs are using them as soon as they get their drugs," Asciutto said. He said they aren't going home to use them after their purchase of the drugs. They are using them as soon as they walk outside and leave the waste of needles on the sidewalk and in the streets.
Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy is planning to call an emergency hearing, citing public health and safety hazards.
WBZ NewsRadio’s James Rojas (@JamesRojas.bsky.social) reports.