[B]URLINGTON — The incoming U.S. attorney for Vermont issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday suggesting her office would prosecute and seize the assets of anyone operating safe injection facilities in its jurisdiction.
The statement came in response to a commission report from the Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, local police, medical professionals and social service providers endorsing the use of safe spaces for people to inject heroin or consume other opiates.
Health Department figures show 72 people died in Vermont from opiate overdoses from January to September.
Safe injection facilities are intended to be places where people can use drugs under medical supervision without fear of prosecution and are coupled with avenues to addiction treatment and other social services.
Studies the commission cited in its report show safe injection sites reduce overdose deaths, give users a path to treatment, don’t encourage more drug use and end up paying for themselves through reduced health care and incarceration costs.
There are bills in the Vermont House and Senate aimed at limiting criminal liability for operators of safe injection sites and protecting them from civil forfeiture at the state level. Legislative leaders say the proposals will be considered during the upcoming session.
No officially sanctioned safe injection sites currently exist in the United States, but such facilities have operated in other countries for decades. Montreal, Canada, opened three in June. Seattle, Washington, is poised to open the first safe injection facility in the U.S. this coming year, with $1.3 million for the project in its recently passed budget.
Despite Seattle having made the most progress of any place in the United States toward opening a safe injection site, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, where Seattle is located, hasn’t made any public statements for or against the city’s plans, according to a spokeswoman.
Incoming U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, who will be sworn in Friday, said that safe injection sites “would encourage and normalize heroin use, thereby increasing demand for opiates and, by extension, risk of overdose and overdose deaths.”
Nolan added that such facilities would increase demand for illegal drugs, driving profits to out-of-state criminal operations, place health care workers at risk and undermine drug use prevention efforts by “sending exactly the wrong message to children in Vermont: the government will help you use heroin.”
Nolan wrote that while George and other commission members “were motivated by their desire to save lives and combat the scourge of opiate addiction,” safe injection facilities are not only bad policy, they violate federal law. The statement also appeared to threaten prosecution should such a facility open in Vermont.
“It is a crime, not only to use illicit narcotics, but to manage and maintain sites on which such drugs are used and distributed. Thus, exposure to criminal charges would arise for users and SIF (safe injection facility) workers and overseers. The properties that host SIFs would also be subject to federal forfeiture,” the statement read.
The statement says its intent is to “outline the ramifications under federal law.”
Asked if the statement is intended to make clear that the U.S. Attorney would prosecute the workers and operators of a safe injection site, as well is its users, Kraig Laporte, a spokesman for the office, said “the statement is comprehensive and speaks for itself.”
George said that Nolan contacted her shortly a news conference where the commission announced its findings, asking for a copy of its report and saying that several people had asked for a position from the U.S. attorney.
“I certainly appreciated her at least acknowledging the work we did on the commission, and the comments about our hearts being in the right place, but I was definitely frustrated by the bulk of the statement,” George said.
“Some of the comments about how this will enable users and get more business for drug dealers, I just felt that was really unrealistic and not what the data and research have shown,” George added.
George said she was disappointed that the statement offered no evidence to back up its assertions, adding that the U.S. attorney’s office seems to imply “the correct response is exactly what we’ve been doing for 30 years that’s not working.”
Gov. Phil Scott’s Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson issued a statement similar to Nolan’s following George’s news conference, in which he said, “Facilitating the ongoing use of heroin through SIFs sends the wrong message, at the wrong time, to the wrong people.”
After reviewing evidence-based, peer-reviewed studies George’s commision found safe injection sites would not only reduce overdose death, they would minimize the risk of infectious disease and increase referrals to treatment and health services, while “improving public order and nuisance concerns.”
A similar review by the Massachusetts Medical Society found that research on the positive effects of safe injection sites “is rigorous and has been endorsed by many experts and published in peer-reviewed journals.”
“For example, in Vancouver, British Columbia, (safe injection facility utilization reduced overdose mortality by 35 percent
The Howard Center, which was represented on the commission — and is considered likely operator of a Burlington safe injection site through its Safe Recovery program, should one be created — said the U.S. attorney’s statement may impact their decision about whether to be involved.
Bob Bick, the Howard Center’s CEO, said he doesn’t agree with Nolan that safe injection sites would encourage or “normalize” drug use, and he said there is good evidence that such facilities could reduce overdose deaths and enhance the relationships that get people into treatment.
Still, the Howard Center won’t get involved unless the state passes a law protecting safe injection sites and commits the necessary resources to operate them effectively. Bick said he would also need greater clarity and assurances of how federal authorities would respond.
“Howard Center is not going to open up a program if the U.S. attorney is telling us, ‘We will charge individuals under the federal statute,’” Bick said.
Rep. Selene Colburn, P-Burlington, who introduced the House safe injection bill, said she was horrified when she read Nolan’s statement.
“It felt directly out of the Trump-Sessions playbook, and it willfully disregards the research that’s out there,” Colburn said, “It’s not a fact-based statement, and it’s surprising and horrifying to see that happen at the local level.”
Colburn questioned whether Nolan’s statement was influenced by higher-ups at the Department of Justice in Washington. “It reads so much like the Trump, Session agenda on the opioid crisis that it’s really hard to read whose view is being expressed here,” Colburn said.
Laporte, Nolan’s spokesman, said the statement “was not issued as the result of a DOJ directive.”
Colburn said she’s confident that her colleagues in the Legislature will act based on the research and evidence, instead of what appears to be a threat of federal prosecution.
“This warrants federal prosecution in the way that medical marijuana warrants federal prosecution, and that’s something we’ve been moving forward with in Vermont for a long time,” Colburn said.
The first-term House member will have at least one powerful ally in making sure safe injection legislation gets a fair hearing in Montpelier. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his committee will hear testimony on the Senate bill next year.
“I’m quite frankly undecided at this point as to whether I’d support (safe injection facilities) or not,” Sears said. However, Sears said that Nolan’s statement sounded like “hyperbole” and the scare tactics about drugs he’d seen used in the 1960s.
“The threat of violating federal law, we hear that with marijuana as well,” he said, “I want to do it on what’s best for Vermont, and I’m not going to be intimidated by the feds.”