This commentary is by Ed Baker of North Burlington, co-chair of the Vermont Overdose Prevention Network, and a person in long-term recovery from injection drug use. He retired after a 30-year counseling practice with people with substance use disorders.
Regarding Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of H.728, it’s most difficult for me to find the words to express both my sadness and the intensity of my anger toward him for nullifying the voice of Vermont as expressed through both the House and the Senate.
H.728 was “an act relating to opioid overdose response services.” It was carefully designed after much deliberation and testimony to develop data that would either clearly support or not support innovative interventions with the potential to save the lives of Vermonters at risk for drug overdose death.
By vetoing the bill, the governor has essentially rendered innovation based upon scientific study impossible, and guaranteed the status quo. An unspeakable travesty.
For 2020 and 2021, the rate of increase in overdose mortality in Vermont has been over 30%. In 2020, we were ranked first in America regarding the increase in overdose deaths; in 2021, we were ranked fourth.
To explain this in tragic numbers, in 2021 there were 215 loved Vermonters lost to overdose death. If this trend continues, by late 2023 we will be losing one loving Vermonter per day.
We are being overwhelmed as we speak by an ever-increasing acceleration in the velocity of drug overdose deaths. There were 107,622 beautiful Americans lost last year, the equivalent of over 35 World Trade Centers in one year — one person killed every 4.8 minutes.
This is due to the unregulated drug supply being thoroughly poisoned with fentanyl, the most lethal opioid known.
This is a public health emergency! Vermonters with severe substance use disorder, for the most part, have no voice. They are not a powerful constituency. They are often the victims of institutional stigma. They are now at the mercy of murderous international crime organizations, profiting wildly by exploiting their addictions.
H.728 was our opportunity to listen to these fellow Vermonters, our neighbors, friends and family members, and to respond to them with lifesaving innovations. To hear their voices through our Legislature.
How is it that Gov. Scott could veto this bill? Could nullify the voice of the people?
In his veto message, Gov. Scott states, “From my standpoint, it seems counterintuitive to divert resources from proven harm-reduction strategies to plan injection sites without clear data on the effectiveness of this approach.”
The bill does not use the term “injection sites” because this term generates implicit bias and stigma. The governor knows this, and intentionally uses stigma-inducing language in his veto to garner support for his veto. Incredible.
To be accurate, the bill would have created a study group to develop “clear data on the effectiveness of this approach” that the governor is lamenting not having. This would have been scientific data that would inform policy decisions, rather than personal intuition used to nullify the voice of Vermont.
The plan was for the study group to review research, hear expert testimony, to exhaustively evaluate the potential of overdose prevention sites saving lives in Vermont, and to make recommendations.
Gov. Scott preempted the study group. Period.
One of my favorite quotes has always been one by Herbert Spencer, where he succinctly explains that contempt before investigation cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This veto could not be a clearer expression of contempt before investigation. There will be no study, there will be no recommendations, there will be no lifesaving innovations.
There will be the status quo: Vermonters continuing to die of drug overdose at an accelerating rate.
I, for one, do not accept our governor’s clearly cavalier decision regarding studying opioid overdose prevention sites and other overdose response services, including:
- Safe syringe programs
- Prior authorization guidelines for medication for opioid use disorder
- Mobile medication-assisted treatment
- Substance use support for justice-involved Vermonters
- Overdose emergency response
All services focused on our most vulnerable; all vetoed,
Something is fundamentally wrong here. Why is it so easy to let people die? How many more deaths will it take for the light of compassion to break through this opaque veil of stigma that persists within the very policies that are supposed to protect the most vulnerable of us?
Who of us does not need the protection of others? Are we to continue to turn our backs on our most vulnerable? Are “they” somehow not worthy of our protection?
We, each and every one of us, proud Vermonters, need to stand straight behind our legislators and support them in pushing H.728-like measures through during our next legislative session. This is the way forward for Vermont.
We do not back down and turn our backs on our most at-risk-for-death neighbors and loved ones. This is where the governor feels the will of the people and responds accordingly or faces the consequences.
