Video of Monday’s news conference announcing the grant.
[A] new federal grant will arm Vermont with $12.4 million to combat the state’s worsening drug problem, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Gov. Peter Shumlin announced at the Statehouse on Monday.
The money, granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will fund the expansion of Vermont’s Regional Prevention Partnerships Program, which strives to fight drug and alcohol abuse in 12- to 25-year-olds across the state.
The program operates in six counties. The $12.4 million grant will allow for six new partnerships in district offices across the state, expanding the program’s coverage to 11 out of 14 counties.
The Department of Health and Human Services awarded the grant to Vermont because the agency saw Vermont as a trailblazer in addiction prevention, Leahy said.
“This $12 million grant in our State of Vermont is a well-deserved recognition that our state is leading the way, and it makes this promoter very, very proud,” he said.
In terms of addiction statistics among the general population, Vermont is decidedly not leading the way. Statistics from the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) show that the state’s heroin and opioid problem has been getting progressively more severe since 2008. Another VDH report shows that fatal drug overdoses are on the rise, up to 68 in 2013 from 38 in 2004.
The state is also above the national average in terms of high-risk drinking and marijuana use, Health Commissioner Harry Chen said at the news conference.
Leahy said the increasingly severe drug problem affects not only those who suffer from addiction, but children as well. There are 33 percent more children in state protection than at the beginning of 2014, and the Department for Children and Families said opiates were a major factor in a recent spike in child abuse, in their 2014 child protection report.
“There are more children being taken into state custody than ever before, largely due to parents’ addiction,” Leahy said.
While Vermont has had little success combating child abuse associated with drug addiction, Chen said state efforts aimed at preventing children and teenagers from forming addictions of their own have been effective.
“Among young Vermonters ages 18-25, there are significant decreases – translating to 3,000 fewer binge drinkers, 3,000 fewer marijuana users and 2,000 fewer misusing opioid drugs. Our youth risk behavior survey of high school students told a similar story,” Dr. Chen said Monday. “That good news is the direct result of funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, together with direction and support from the Health Department to build strong prevention partnerships in six regions of the state.”
The six partnerships, as well as the six new ones made possible by the HHS grant, operate under prevention and early intervention strategies that aim to reduce the rates at which young people adopt self-destructive, habitual behaviors, such as binge drinking and drug abuse.
Kreig Pinkham, executive director of the Washington County Youth Services Bureau, said the partnership has “peppered the valley” with signs encouraging a “safe and alcohol-informed” 4th of July. They have also published editorials in local papers and worked with a youth group to put on a theater performance that looks critically at the public’s perception of teen substance abuse, he said.
Because the partnerships funded by the grant focus on prevention rather than treatment, results will take several years to measure, Shumlin and Leahy said. But the program represents a move away from outdated methods of drug enforcement, the governor said. “The traditional war on drugs doesn’t work,” Shumlin said.
