In “Vermont’s 2022 opioid deaths set record for 3rd straight year,” two seasoned experts, Scott Pavek and Jess Kirby, frankly expose the tragic failures of the Opioid Settlement Abatement Advisory Committee process.
While decisions and recommendations were made that will improve some of the services offered people at risk for poly-drug overdose death in Vermont, the lamentable fact of the matter is that the process itself was tainted, slanted from the start toward the status quo, the same status quo that has enabled drug overdose death to quintuple since 2010, with the final death toll for 2022 likely to be above 250 loved Vermonters.
I attended four of these meetings as a member of the public, and have reviewed all meeting minutes and recordings. And I can say that I observed a committee process that treated members dismissively, was unwilling to consider members’ ideas, and blatantly ignored members’ requests to hear expert testimony on overdose prevention centers, while overdose death in Vermont accelerates at shocking velocity.
At this point, all hope resides within the Vermont House of Representatives and Vermont Senate. The beginning of a potential corrective process occurred March 23 at the House Human Services Committee hearing on the abatement committee process.
Vermont needs to stand up to entrenched power when it costs the lives of Vermonters through the willful mismanagement of time, treasure and talent.
Opioid settlement funds will flow into our great state for the next 17 years. The opportunity to save lives is ours.
Ed Baker
Burlington