[B]URLINGTON — A panel of national experts on the opioid epidemic commended city leaders on the steps they have have taken address the crisis during a meeting Tuesday night at City Hall.
Mayor Miro Weinberger hosted Gil Kerlikowske, who was the “drug czar” in the Obama administration; Josh Sharfstein, a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Fred Ryan, former police chief of Arlington, Mass.
Opioid-related overdose deaths fell by 50 percent in Chittenden County last year, from 35 deaths in 2017 to 17 in 2018. Burlington has been taking steps to increase access to opioid addiction medications and worked to counter the stigma around addiction.
Kerlikowske said he was impressed by what he was seeing and hearing in Burlington.
“It is an incredibly complex problem, it isn’t solved at the federal government level, it’s really solved, like right here, at the community level,” Kerlikowske said.
He said he was also impressed by the community’s interest, reflected in the size of the crowd at Tuesday’s town hall. The crowd filled the main floor at Contois Auditorium and stretched into the rafters.
Weinberger said that the city was hopeful that its efforts had contributed to the decrease in opioid-related deaths in the county, and that the work was continuing.
“What has come out of the local effort, I believe, is perhaps the most robust constellation of interventions of any community in America,” Weinberger said. “And as we meet here tonight, there is a sense that those interventions are starting to get some traction.”
A major point of discussion at Tuesday’s event were the city’s efforts to expand access to buprenorphine. Since October, those with opioid use disorder seeking immediate treatment have been able to access buprenorphine the same day they request it at the Howard Center’s Safe Recovery Program.
Chittenden County became the first jurisdiction in the United States where prosecutors announced they wouldn’t charge those found in possession of the opioid withdrawal medication.
“We want to encourage people to possess a drug that will save their life versus the possession of heroin, which is likely to kill them,” State’s Attorney Sarah George said.
Rep. Selene Colburn, P-Burlington, has sponsored a bill that would make it legal to possess buprenorphine without a prescription in the state. The bill has been approved by the House Judiciary Committee.
Sharfstein said that he supports the legalization of non-prescribed buprenorphine possession and said that those who use buprenorphine become more likely to eventually seek treatment.
“Very rarely is it used for euphoria,” he said. “People generally don’t feel euphoric when they take it, it’s almost always used to prevent withdrawal.”
However, the bill has met some opposition, including from U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, who argues that some people could abuse buprenorphine if it were legalized.
Sharfstein, who is also the author of the upcoming book, “The Opioid Epidemic: What Everyone Needs to Know,” focused on the importance of approaching the opioid epidemic as a public health crisis in seeking solutions.
Sharfstein said it’s important to listen to those with opioid use disorder, and focus on getting people into treatment. He said that it’s also important to try new strategies and see if they are working.
“I really think an important reason why Burlington is making progress is because you are taking a public health approach,” he said.
Ryan said as a young cop, he and his colleagues repeatedly arrest the same people for drug-related offenses.
“Even early on, as a young cop when my supervisors were encouraging this type of activity, I wondered, ‘what am i achieving here? Are we moving the dial or are we just recycling and wasting resources and not getting at the root cause of the problem?” he said.
Ryan said that his department embedded clinicians into the department who did outreach work to people who had previously overdosed and developed a post-overdose protocol where an outreach team would do survival planning with the loved ones of those with opioid use disorder.
“Success can’t happen without everybody in this room, and everybody in the city, creating an environment where long-term recovery can happen in the community without stigma,” he said.
While President Donald Trump has said that a border wall will help stem the flow of drugs into the United States, Kerlikowske disputed that claim.
“The wall would have almost zero impact on stopping drugs coming into the United States,” he said. “The only drug that comes across the border on the southern border is marijuana.”
A group of local leaders, including George, Burlington police chief Brandon del Pozo and Mark Levine, the commissioner of the state Department of Health, joined the panel for a Q&A session during the second half of the meeting.
Del Pozo said that status-quo enforcement strategies have proven not to work, and he supported George’s decision to not prosecute for possession of non-prescribed buprenorphine.
“I’ve been very very humbled by this opioid epidemic because more Vermonters have been killed under my watch and the watch of the public officials in this room than at any other time in Vermont history,” he said.
Del Pozo said he became a cop to save lives, and protecting and rescuing those in danger should be prioritized over enforcing laws.
“We’ve tried for years and we haven’t made a difference, but we’re on the cusp of trying lots of new things, saving some lives, and I’m proud to be a part of that,” he said.
