This commentary is by Ed Baker of Burlington, part of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. He is a person in recovery from injection drug use and an activist. He hosts and produces the Addiction Recovery Channel on CCTV VT.
It’s with humility and a sense of risk that I speak for the many dear ones taken from us by poly-drug overdose death in Vermont. I’m compelled to do so by the Opioid Settlement Abatement Advisory Committee process I’ve been observing.
The final recommendations to the state Legislature, as stated in state Health Commissioner Mark Levine’s memorandum of March 10, 2023, are the result of a public health-focused process marred by political influence.
I happen to be in recovery from severe drug use disorder, including injection drug use. I know what it’s like to inject drugs in public restrooms; be hospitalized multiple times; be incarcerated, and institutionalized; be beaten up by the war on drugs; subjected to multiple coerced treatments.
It’s truly a wonder I’m alive today, speaking out for the dead. I guess this is where my deep sense of affinity springs from; I am one of them.
I actually experienced the cumulative grief amassed by the 28,647 opioid overdose fatalities noted in the Centers for Disease Control report of 2015, referring to 2014, while researching drug overdose death. The experience knocked me to the floor and has shaped my life ever since. This report, a mere eight years ago, estimated deaths due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl at approximately 3,000. Today that number is well above 70,000 per year.
Add heroin, pharmaceutical opioids, methamphetamine and other stimulants and it’s no wonder America is losing one loved one every 4.8 minutes (107,622 in 2021); Vermont losing one loved one every 33 hours (237 in 2022, 24 pending = potential 261). And there’s every reason to predict that 2023 and beyond will continue to reflect our system’s inadequate response to this fiasco.
I’ve personally visited the Tenderloin District in San Francisco, the Kensington West District in Philadelphia, and City Hall Park in Burlington. These locations, and hundreds more like them across America, are the holding cells for those about to die, the next 107,622 Americans. The next 261 Vermonters.
If you study the Opioid Settlement Funding Recommendations for fiscal year 2024 in the above link, you’ll note what appears to be the outcome of a deliberative committee process focused on public health. What occurred was largely a political process dominated by the current administration’s agenda.
The committee was chaired by a gubernatorial appointee, Dr. Mark Levine, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health. The committee process itself was engineered by agenda to limit the availability of time open to hear expert testimony on innovative interventions such as overdose prevention centers. Repeated requests to hear expert testimony on overdose prevention centers were ignored. The committee members were not encouraged to discuss and debate ideas, at times being treated dismissively. At times votes were ignored or miscounted.
Particularly interesting is the mention of overdose prevention centers and the committee’s intent to take testimony in the coming months. Committee members’ requests to hear expert testimony on this topic were ignored. Also mentioned is Rhode Island’s intent to open harm reduction centers (the equivalent of overdose prevention centers), while no mention is made of OnPointNYC, the USA’s first overdose prevention center, fully operating now for 16 months with well-documented success.
While $7.3 million of the $10.3 opioid settlement funds are suggested to be spent on worthwhile harm reduction interventions, a full $3 million-plus is left untouched, while Vermonters die of drug overdose, the number of deaths per year consistently increasing — in fact, near-quintupling since 2010.
That’s $3 million lying idly, while one of the most immediate and efficacious interventions to save the lives of people with severe drug use disorder is stalled because of political bias. In 2022, by far the deadliest year on record, Gov. Scott went so far as to veto a bill designed to study the feasibility of an overdose prevention center in Vermont.
Chittenden County has the highest number of overdose deaths per year. The mayor of Burlington, Miro Weinberger, suggested $1 million be set aside specifically to support an overdose prevention center in Burlington. The Burlington City Council has recently adopted its fourth resolution also supporting an overdose prevention center. The Chittenden County state’s attorney has expressed support. People who use drugs in this area have expressed widespread interest in utilizing an overdose prevention center when available.
The funds to support this are being intentionally withheld.
At this point, the state Legislature holds the key and has final say in actual fiscal year 2024 allocations. This is the time for all concerned Vermonters to speak out for those lost to us and those about to die. This is the time for our lawmakers to hear the Committee of the People.
Please contact your legislator in support of overdose prevention centers.
