Vermont’s governor vetoed a bill that would have allowed the state’s largest city, Burlington, to open a pilot overdose prevention center, including a safe injection site where people could use drugs under the supervision of trained staff and be resuscitated if they overdosed.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott wrote in a letter to lawmakers Thursday that while these sites are set up with good intentions, “this costly experiment will divert financial resources from proven prevention, treatment and recovery strategies.”
The Democratic-controlled Legislature is expected to try to overturn the bill next month.
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The bill, the Harm Reduction Criminal Justice Responses to Drug Use Act, would have allocated $1.1 million in fiscal year 2025 to the Vermont Department of Health to provide grant funding to establish a center in Burlington. The funding would have come from the Opioid Reduction Special Fund, which is made up of Vermont’s share of a national settlement with drug manufacturers and distributors. Previously, the bill required the health department to contract with researchers and consultants to study the impact of an overdose prevention center pilot program.
Vermont Governor Phil Scott delivers his State of the State address remotely from the Pavilion Office Building in Montpelier, Vermont, on January 5, 2022. (Associated Press, Pool, via files, Glenn Russell/VT Digger)
The centers would also provide addiction treatment and referrals to health and social services, as well as education on overdose prevention and distribution of overdose-reversing medications.
“The dramatic increase in fatal overdoses over the past decade is one of the most urgent crises facing our state,” Senate President pro tempore Phil Burruss, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday.
He said the overdose prevention centres would save lives and connect people to treatment, while also reducing pressure on emergency departments and urgent medical services and reducing drug consumption in public places.
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The governor vetoed a similar bill two years ago.
