by Michael Bielawski/Vermont Watchdog Attorney general candidates Republican Deborah Bucknam and Democrat TJ Donovan criticized Vermont’s handling of the opioid addiction crisis during a debate at Johnson State College on Thursday. The debate, moderated by state Sen. Bill Doyle, R-Washington, was attended by college students and largely focused on drug addiction.
“I think the heroin epidemic is the most serious issue facing our state,” Donovan said, speaking from a conference table in the college’s Ellsworth Room.
Bucknam presented opiate use statistics in a press release this week as part of her seven-point Opioid Plan for Hope. According to her numbers, pharmacists increased opioid prescriptions from 482,000 in 2010 to more than 538,000 in 2014. She also cited a Vermont Department of Health report indicating there were 41 opioid related deaths in 2010 compared to 76 in 2015.
Nationwide, drug overdoses have risen to almost 50,000 a year, substantially higher than the nearly 30,000 annual auto accidents.
In response to these trends, Gov. Peter Shumlin in 2014 signed executive orders and bills that included $6.7 million for central facilities and treatment outposts, new addiction therapy programs, stronger sentences for traffickers and new rules for issuing prescriptions. Both candidates want changes if they can get into office.
Donovan took issue with sending addicts into the criminal justice system.
“For many people who are struggling with addiction, that diagnosis is coming at the counsel table in a court room by a prosecutor and a judge,” he said. “How we try to fix that issue of addiction through a jail cell, through a probation term, through a monetary fine, has proven time after time to be ineffective.”
Donovan feels that “treatment on demand” is the better solution. He praised Burlington's Safe Recovery program, where addicts safely exchange needles.
“It’s not condoning drug use; nobody is saying that drug use is good,” Donovan said. “But it’s acknowledging that some people are going to use drugs no matter what, so you ought to prevent the spread of diseases.”
He said the cost to taxpayers for treatment versus incarceration was “pennies on the dollar.” He also praised the opiate antidote Narcan, which he said saved more than 700 Vermonters from overdose in recent years. In August Shumlin announced all pharmacies would carry the drug.
Bucknam, while acknowledging the logic in those treatments, said she thinks it’s a shame to rely on them.
“Isn’t it really sad that 700 Vermonters had to have their lives saved by the administering of this drug because they were overdosing on an opioid?” she said. “We really do need to focus on reducing the use so that we don’t have to use Narcan.”
In her press statement, Bucknam condemned Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell’s handling of the opiate epidemic, saying, “the State of Vermont is sending out the wrong message that is it OK to use as long as it’s in a controlled setting.”
She referred to a list of safety tips recently released by the Health Department for how to shoot heroin while avoiding an overdose.
Bucknam's proposed initiatives include a “statewide task force to inventory and assess what programs and policies in the criminal justice system are working.” Her office also would review current law to determine what additional reforms are needed “to enhance the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate, detain, and ultimately convict drug traffickers.”
After the event, Bucknam was asked about the importance of coordination with law enforcement.
“Sure, absolutely,” she said. “There are too many silos in Vermont, and in every part of the government. I think coordination and cooperation is going to be top priority.”
Contact Michael Bielawski at [email protected]. September 16, 2016