MONTPELIER – Hardwick’s Rep. Mike Southworth has added his name as an additional sponsor of a newly introduced bill. H.39 is “an act relating to repeal of authorization of overdose prevention centers.” The original legislation passed during last year’s session and went into effect June 17, 2024.
The legislation defines the services overdose prevention centers can offer and provides state protection to those using, staffing and operating such centers.
Southworth said, “I will be supporting H.39. I do not feel leaving the Statute as written, sets a good precedent for Vermonters.”
Rep. Leanne Harple commented on the proposed legislation, saying, “I disagree that we should repeal the law passed last spring that would enable us to operate an overdose prevention center. My understanding is that the sponsors of this bill believe that we need to address Vermont’s opiate crisis through recovery and treatment, and that the money to operate these centers would be better spent in those areas.”
“However, I haven’t heard their testimony on this bill yet, so I don’t want to speak for them and I am interested to learn more about their position. I do believe that we all share a strong interest in ending the opiate crisis, and a common value in wanting to keep Vermont safe and healthy for everyone, which I appreciate from my Republican colleagues,” she said.
“. . .My support for these centers comes down to one thing: I want my friends to stop dying. Like so many other Vermonters, I have lost people in my life that I loved very much to drug overdoses; family members, childhood friends and valued members of our community. People I cared very much for and would try anything to change what happened. I think too many people are battling this problem in the dark, and I want to see if the overdose prevention centers can bring them back into the light and establish relationships with people abusing drugs with the end goal of helping them to stop completely.
“I know that there are already great organizations doing similar work throughout our community in different ways, but here is another option that could bring more people in, ones who many not be ready for the first step in recovery yet, and I would like to see the data on how many people this has helped if we let it run for a little while. To me, even one life saved (and hopefully data will show it is a lot more than one) spares some families the pain that I have personally felt and watched others I love go through after the loss of a friend or family member due to an overdose.
“I think too many people equate those using drugs with hard-core criminals, ‘junkies,’ ‘dregs of society’ or people without value.
“I am fully aware that crime has spiked that can directly be tied to addiction and I absolutely want to solve that too, but when I think about addiction I also think of our family members, the kids who we rode the school bus with to elementary school, our high school friends that just never managed to find quite the right path after graduation, the faces we see at our local restaurants and joke with in passing that are struggling with battles we don’t know about. People that will never be picked up by the law and forced into recovery because the only crime they are committing is doing an illegal drug alone, in private, under the radar of services.”
“I wonder if a program like this could find people that won’t otherwise be found to help. I also wonder if people I know would still be alive today if they weren’t afraid to go to an overdose prevention center or call 911,” said Harple.
Current Vermont law creates overdose prevention centers to provide space supervised by health care professionals or other trained staff where persons who use drugs can consume preobtained drugs and medication for substance use disorder. It may also provide harm reduction supplies and education about using sterile injection supplies, collecting used hypodermic needles and syringes with secure disposal services for them.
Centers can provide drug-checking services, answer questions on safer consumption practices and administer first aid, if needed; they can monitor and treat potential overdoses; provide referrals to addiction treatment, medical services and social services and educates participants on the risks of contracting HIV and viral hepatitis, wound care and safe sex education. They can also provide overdose prevention education and distribute overdose reversal medications, including naloxone.
In managing overdose prevention centers, the legislation requires the provision of reasonable security of the program site, establishing operating procedures for the program, as well as eligibility criteria for program participants and training staff members to deliver services offered by the program.
