The Vermont House is again considering legalizing small amounts of buprenorphine, a prescription drug used to treat opioid dependence.
The idea has been debated in the House since 2019, and last year a legalization bill was endorsed unanimously by the House Human Services Committee. But, like many bills in 2020, it fell to the wayside after the coronavirus pandemic reached Vermont.
Now, the committee is poised to move a legalization bill again next week, according to its chair, Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington.
The legislation, H.225, would allow people to possess up to 224 milligrams of the substance — or about two weeks’ worth of a prescription — even if they don’t have permission from a doctor.
Now, possessing the drug without a prescription is a misdemeanor crime.
Pugh called the policy change a “harm-reduction approach to drug addiction.” She said it’s especially necessary given the increase in drug overdoses during the pandemic.
“It sends a message that, if you have a few days’ worth of buprenorphine because you are trying to get to stop using, we prefer you to stop using, so we’re not going to criminally prosecute you,” Pugh said.
The debate about decriminalizing buprenorphine in Vermont began after prosecutors in Chittenden County announced in 2018 they would no longer file criminal charges for possession of the drug — becoming the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to do so.
Advocates for decriminalizing buprenorphine have frequently pointed to Chittenden County, where opioid overdose deaths dropped by 50% in 2018 — an outcome that some have attributed, in part, to the policy shift.
Other U.S. prosecutors have followed Chittenden County’s lead. Prosecutors in Philadelphia and Washtenaw County, Michigan, have also announced they won’t prosecute cases of buprenorphine possession.
Speaking to the human services committee on Thursday, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George urged lawmakers to extend the policy to the rest of the state.
“I think it’s important to remember that what Vermont does really matters, and as small as we may be, our decisions really do have a big impact, and they send a bigger message,” George said.
The legislation, she said, “tells people that we care about them, that we want them to survive.”
While the buprenorphine bill received tri-partisan backing from the human services committee last year, it has not been endorsed by the Vermont Department of Health.
In 2019, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said that, while he would support the decriminalization effort in any other state, he wouldn’t in Vermont. His reasoning: The state has no wait times to get into substance use disorder treatment, so there is no need to legalize possession of the drug without a prescription.
“We are a state that has no waiting lists, so there’s no reason for a person to be on the streets with nothing else to turn to but illicitly obtained buprenorphine,” he said.
Pugh said the legislation supports the state’s efforts to direct users towards treatment.
“On some level we are saying ‘We want you to be in treatment,’” Pugh said. “We’re talking about if you are self-medicating, if you are taking that step on your own, then we are not going to prosecute you for a crime. And that, I think, is very consistent with the position of the state, which is addiction is a public health issue.”
