An open letter to Gov. Maura Healey:

Last year, 2,357 died of opioid-related overdoses here in Massachusetts. That’s an average of more than six a day.

Since 2017, the total is 12,716, roughly the population of the Town of Rehoboth.

Those numbers alone are staggering. But there’s a person, a face connected to each of those deaths.

So many of those victims are young adults who may have gotten addicted to painkillers, made bad choices and paid the price.

They leave behind family members and friends who will be forever scarred.

The opioid crisis needs to be brought under control. The carnage is too great.

You certainly saw the toll as our attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement official.

Real leadership is needed. And you are the best person to provide it.

There is a proven solution, but it likely will stir up controversy.

The proposal calls for creating overdose prevention centers to allow addicts to take drugs safely, monitored by medical professionals equipped with Narcan to prevent fatal overdoses. The drugs would be tested to make sure they do not contain fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid police and health officials say is responsible for the record deaths.

That’s right, let addicts use drugs rather than locking them up.

At these supervised sites, a doctor will be able to treat people for infections or other dangerous medical conditions and other workers will be available to provide information to get people food, shelter and treatment.

The centers would be cheaper than putting users in jail, they would steer people to treatment and people wouldn’t be crowding emergency rooms, advocates say.

Your administration is now conducting a feasibility study on the program, and you say you support the idea. But you must do more than support it.

You must be bold and sell it.

That carries political risks. Supervised sites run counter to strategies of the past and what many other states are doing: Arresting the addicts and attempting to get the drugs off the street.

As the numbers indicate, it hasn’t worked.

A new strategy is needed.

Early indications are that supervised sites have been a success around the world, and they are taking root in America.

New York City started a program in 2021 used by more than 2,000 people in its first year, reversing 600 overdoses. Rhode Island enacted a pilot program in 2021 and last month Connecticut legislators approved a bill.

A bill now before the Massachusetts Legislature would establish supervised sites, but similar measures have failed in the past.

Your predecessor, Republican Charlie Baker, and former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, who was appointed by Donald Trump, opposed the idea.

Lelling had threatened to deploy “law enforcement” if any site opened in the state.

But now you are the governor. You carry the clout to get this idea front and center before the public and to make the voters understand that a new strategy is needed.

You need to make sure that the public knows too many lives have been lost, too many families have suffered too much.

Lives are on the line, and bold leadership is needed to save them.