Vermont’s comprehensive approach to combating heroin abuse
The problem of heroin abuse and its effects on individuals and society is complex, multifaceted and resistant to easy solutions. But to their credit, policymakers in Vermont seem ready, willing and able to accept this reality. Consequently, their efforts to stop the spread of heroin use and addiction in their state are setting a standard in proactivity that other states would be wise to emulate. Vermont’s anti-heroin, anti-addiction campaign includes some of the following initiatives:- Expanded surveillance and criminal prosecutions: Aware as they are that outsiders are helping to flood the state with plentiful supplies of the drug, state and local police departments are working hard to crack down on the interstate drug dealing networks that have penetrated Vermont’s borders. Thanks to these dedicated efforts, in federal courts heroin-related prosecutions increased from 31 in 2012 to 73 in 2013, while city and county district attorneys secured 220 heroin convictions in 2013 after successfully prosecuting just 106 individuals for those crimes in 2012.
- Launching a “hub-and-spokes” treatment program to expand drug rehabilitation availability: The “hubs” are regional treatment centers where ailing addicts receive subsidized medical services, including detox and psychological therapy. The “spokes” are local doctors who agree to care for recovering heroin addicts after they complete the original stage of their rehabilitation program.
- Supplying police officers and EMTs with plentiful doses of Naloxone, which can counteract and negate the effects of an opioid overdose: Vermont overdose deaths attributable to heroin use jumped from nine in 2012 to 21 in 2013. Meanwhile, deaths caused by misuse of prescription opioids rose from 46 to 50 over the same two-year period. Naloxone can make a decisive difference if it is administered in time, and few doubt that widespread availability of this drug will have a positive and demonstrative impact on drug fatality statistics.
- The opening of more drug courts: Vermont now has three drug courts. These alternative judiciary bodies sentence nonviolent drug arrestees to rehabilitation instead of prison. Charges against the accused will be dismissed if they complete treatment programs and remain clean and sober. Studies show that about half of all drug court graduates do in fact meet these requirements, and relapse rates for this group are lower than for drug addicts punished with incarceration.
- Limiting the availability of Zohydro, the newest entrant in the prescription opioid painkiller class: This potent new hydrocodone drug has been compared to OxyContin, the most notoriously addictive of all the opioid medications. The FDA’s decision to approve the drug has been controversial, and in response to its arrival on the market Gov. Shumlin issued an emergency edict restricting the ability of physicians to hand out Zohydro prescriptions until further studies can be carried out.
