MASSACHUSETTS: EXEMPTING NEEDLE RECIPIENTS

Participants in a hypodermic needle exchange program in Cambridge may not
be arrested for possessing needles in Lynn or in other cities and towns
that have decided not to sponsor such programs, the state's highest court
held. The state law that allows such programs, which aim to reduce the
transmission of blood-borne diseases by intravenous drug users, was
ambiguous about whether it decriminalized the possession of needles just in
those municipalities that decided to sponsor programs. The court held that
allowing participants to be arrested elsewhere in the state would frustrate
the aims of the law.

Adam Liptak (NYT)