Puerto Rico is exporting addicts to Philly

Guests: Alfred Lubrano, Maria Quiñones-Sanchez, Andrea Duffy

Opioid addiction is the public health crisis of our time, in urban areas as well as the suburbs.  We begin today’s show talking about how police and pastors in Puerto Rico have orchestrated a system to convince heroin addicts there to move to Philadelphia for treatment.  This process involves lying about the conditions of the recovery centers, couching them as heavenly, pastoral communities – but when those seeking help arrive, they are taken to ramshackle, ineffective treatment centers in a blighted section of the Kensington area of Philadelphia. We’ll be joined by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter ALFRED LUBRANO, who will tell us the story.  Then, we’ll talk about the effort to combat addiction in the city with Councilwoman MARIA QUIÑONES-SANCHEZ, and in the Philadelphia suburbs with ANDREA DUFFY, a Montgomery Township district court judge.