In 2013, we lost 81 Vermonters to accidental overdoses. The next year, Gov. Peter Shumlin used his entire State of the State address to sound the alarm about what he called then “a full-blown heroin crisis,” drawing national attention for his directness and focus. What followed was six years of state-led innovation and action by health care providers and officials at all levels of government. By the end of 2019, Vermont had built a treatment system that was the envy of the nation. We turned a corner and overdose deaths began to fall.
Tragically, 2020 brought another bend in the road. We have seen a more than 300% increase in overdose deaths during the past decade, losing 264 Vermonters in 2022, and the drug crisis is driving dramatic increases in serious crimes such as shootings, homicides and vehicle theft, statewide.
These terrible trends show no sign of abating. Yet, as we approach the 10th anniversary of Governor Shumlin’s remarkable speech, there is no high-profile, cross-sector response from state government.
As mayor, I’ve worked to address this issue head-on. As Vermont’s largest city and home to regional health care and social service hubs, Burlington is at the center of this statewide crisis. I have seen what progress, drift and failure on this issue look like.
I convene a monthly meeting of 50-70 health care and service providers, elected officials, law enforcement and community members to review current data and research and take action. This meeting, called Community Stat, has contributed urgency and resources to key initiatives, including eliminating the chronic wait list for treatment at the Chittenden County Hub, reducing prescribing rates of opioids and launching a new overdose response and outreach team from our fire department. Importantly, we have deployed 100% of Burlington’s opioid settlement funds.
However, this crisis heeds no borders, and it is clear to me that our local response will never be enough.
It’s long past time for Vermont’s governor to once again declare the drug crisis our top public health and public safety priority and marshal the full might of state government to combat it.
Without swift and sustained efforts, this crisis will only worsen. Our Hub and Spoke system, tailored to treat the misuse of prescription opioids, hasn’t evolved to meet the reality of today’s increasingly unpredictable, dangerous, illicit drug supply. Fentanyl and meth are now the dominant drugs in Vermont and are shockingly worse than what we faced a decade ago.
These new drugs are much more powerful, less treatable, harder to interdict, cheaper and as a result, cause much greater community impacts.
The federal government and numerous other states have recognized the game-changing nature of fentanyl and launched new plans to address it. Vermont is moving way too slowly, even on straightforward reforms. For example, the Legislature committed $2 million to expand methadone treatment sites last May, but the Vermont Department of Health only just managed to release an RFP in November and told stakeholders not to expect any new facilities for another 12 to 18 months.
That’s far too long at a time when perhaps as many as 20,000 Vermonters suffer from opioid use disorder and the drug crisis is fueling record homicide rates and disrupting our beloved downtowns.
Here is what a plan to retake control of this crisis in 2024 could look like:
— Create a cabinet-level drug crisis office. Create a special assistant to the governor to end the drug crisis with interagency authority and accountability to direct and coordinate enforcement, treatment and recovery efforts across state agencies.
— Utilize local, state and federal enforcement task forces. Vermont must leverage and maximize coordinated, interagency efforts and seek available federal funding to aggressively combat drug trafficking.
— Create a drug crisis data center. This data center should be mandated to track real-time changes in data to establish overdose surveillance and better inform rapid state and local responses.
— Rapidly evolve our harm reduction treatment system. Our Hub and Spoke treatment system was created to fight a very different drug epidemic. We must rebuild and retool it with better methadone treatment, more stabilization and recovery beds, an overdose prevention site pilot and scaled-up contingency management services.
— Invest 10% of opioid settlement funds in implementation. To quickly and effectively invest our more than $15 million of opioid settlement dollars, and millions more we’ll receive for years to come, the state should commit funds to new staff capacity.
— Put enforcement and treatment agencies on a crisis footing. State procurement processes and federal regulations are slowing our response to this rapidly shifting crisis. Just as Pennsylvania’s governor circumvented state and federal regulations to rebuild a vital bridge in 12 days, Vermont needs to cut through these immobilizing rules.
— Increase the ranks of police officers in Vermont. Enforcement efforts are hamstrung by the statewide shortage of police officers. After years of study, it’s past time to create a nonresidential, Chittenden County academy to expand the pool of recruits.
— Reform Vermont’s property crime laws to heighten accountability for recidivist offenders. With vehicle theft rates doubled and larceny up 40% statewide and our laws inconsistent with other progressive states, we must reform the state’s approach to property crime.
Miro Weinberger is mayor of Burlington.
