When I think of Vermont, what comes to my mind are Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, the von Trapp family, cheese, and now – heroin. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin devoted his entire 2014 State of the State address to a drug addiction crisis in this state, saying “We have lost the war on drugs. The notion that we can arrest our way out of this problem is yesterday’s theory.” He said deaths from heroin overdose doubled in 2013 from the year before and more than $2 million of heroin and other opiates are being trafficked into Vermont (pop. 626,600) every week.
Governor Shumlin acknowledged the need for changes in the judicial system and law enforcement – to intervene with users when they are most receptive to treatment options (when the police cruiser’s blue lights are flashing) and impose swift and severe punishment for high-volume dealers and individuals who use firearms in robberies. He also spoke of the need for expanding treatment options and his support for legislation and funding “to bring evidence-based assessment and intervention programs statewide as quickly as we possibly can.”
But Governor Shumlin identified preventing addiction in the first place as the toughest and most important challenge. It is a challenge, he said, “without a clear national model or consensus on what works best.” He proposed several different strategies including education efforts geared to high school students (using a film “The Hungry Heart” about addiction in Vermont) and programs to equip medical providers to intervene and educate patients about how to avoid addiction. He also noted that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires coverage for the first time for the treatment of substance abuse disorders.
In making the case for a greater role for schools, Governor Shumlin said “We know that risky behavior develops early in life and too often accompanies family difficulties and dysfunction. When parents struggle, children suffer, and we all pay the price for years to come. This is why we must continue our focus on the earliest years.” He also promised to sign a bill for all Vermont children to have access to quality universal pre-kindergarten “to set them on the right path.” Universal pre-K programs in Oklahoma, Georgia, and Florida are often identified as models.
The national heroin addiction crisis, according to a January 8 New York Times article, is similar to Vermont and the rest of New England in scope and severity: “While it may be acute in Vermont, it is not isolated. In the past few years, officials have reported a surge in the use of heroin in New England, with a sharp rise in overdoses and deaths, as well as robberies and other crimes common among addicts. Those same statistics are being replicated across the country. Lawmakers in virtually every state are introducing legislation in response to what is rapidly being perceived as a public health crisis.”
The PBS News Hour’s anchor Judy Woodruff interviewed Governor Shumlin and Ryan Grimm of the Huffington Post and author of the book “This is Your Country on Drugs.” In the set-up to the conversation, Woodruff noted that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reported that the number of deaths involving heroin surged 45 percent between 1999-2010. Grimm noted that some states, such as Kentucky, are starting to treat the drug problem more humanely.
There are hopeful signs that drug addiction is increasingly being treated as a public health crisis as well as a law enforcement matter at all levels of government. True, the cost of confinement is a driver but so is the evidence that treatment works. Governor Shumlin asked his fellow Vermonters “to listen to this math”: a week in prison in Vermont costs about $1,120, but $123 will buy a week of treatment for a heroin addict at a state-funded center. What makes more sense for a better future for our children: building more prisons or investing in addiction prevention and treatment? Or better yet, preventing ACEs and building resiliency against them?
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