Around New England

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

February 12, 2018

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.