How We Roll in MA, Part II

PISSED sent me the following story. Apparently I've been too cute and fluffy lately, and he wanted to bring back the sharp, biting edge. Or just drive my blood pressure into the stratosphere...

I-Team: State Spends Millions On Methadone Clinic Rides

An I-Team investigation found that day in and day out, chauffeur driven livery cars make the trek to local methadone clinics with recovering heroin addicts and other drug users on board.

Most of the passengers are members of MassHealth, the state medical plan once known as Medicaid, and it is an expensive trip when there’s only one person in the passenger seat. Expensive for the taxpayers, that is, who are paying the fares.

How expensive, you ask?

And the I-Team has learned that last year, in four regions of Massachusetts, the state spent an estimated $1.4 million just on rides to and from methadone clinics.

That's nearly a mil and a half going to shuttle recovering heroin addicts to and from clinics in luxury cars. That's our tax dollars right there - guess we know why Deval needed to raise the sale tax, eh? Gotta keep the addicts in their state-funded Lincolns and all... I mean, heaven forfend we put them in a cab - or give them a T-pass.

Look, I understand and agree that it's a greater good that we get folks off the horse and into recovery. I'm sympathetic that folks might need a helping hand to make the first appointment or two - recovery from addictive drugs (in my case, nicotine) is a stone-cold bitch. However, in tough economic times such as we find ourselves in now - double digit unemployment and such - it's hard to imagine the state paying for such extravagance while raising taxes and threatening to cut other, far more vital services.

But when has "being fiscally responsible" and "Massachusetts" ever been used in the same sentence?

That is all.