By Guy Page

The next discarded syringe you see in a park or in the street may have been paid for by Vermont taxpayers in the name of infectious disease and overdose protection.

The same House bill that authorizes $1.1 million funding for Burlington’s pilot ‘safe injection site’ also contains a separate allocation for $850,000 in syringe services.

H.218, sponsored by House Human Services Chair Theresa Wood, has passed the House and is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill outlines how this year’s Opioid Abatement Special Fund will be spent. About $12 million of the fund, established through a state settlement with Big Pharma companies, may be allocated this year.

For example, the bill would allocate $1.1 million for the Burlington-based so-called safe injection sites pilot project, which will be up for a Burlington City Council vote April 28, as reported this week by Burlington Daily News editor Kolby LaMarche. (A Burlington City Councilor asked whether children would have access to the site responded that for children using fentanyl, the site is probably a good place to be.)

It also allocates $1,976,000 to the Department of Health to fund 26 outreach or case management staff positions “to increase motivation of and engagement with individuals with substance use disorder in settings such as police barracks, shelters, social service organizations, and elsewhere in the community.”

In addition, it includes $850,000 for what the bill calls ‘syringe services,’ and prioritizes this spending item in future budgets: “$850,000 to the Department of Health for syringe services. It is the intent of the General Assembly that syringe services be funded annually at not less than fiscal year 2026 levels, unless and until the Special Fund does not have sufficient monies to fund this expenditure.”

The Dept. of Health website says Vermont’s Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) “are effective community-based interventions that can prevent infectious diseases, link clients to treatment for substance use disorders, and can reduce overdose deaths among people who inject drugs. They do not increase illegal drug use or crime….SSPs offer free and anonymous services including syringes, supplies, overdose prevention resources, and other services in several communities around Vermont. Clients of SSPs are protected from our state’s paraphernalia law.”

Providers include the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, Howard Center Safe Recovery the HIV/HCV Resource Center, and Vermont CARES. 

Free-standing birthing centers bill gets preliminary appoval in House – S.18, licensure of freestanding birthing centers, received a preliminary OK Wednesday, April 16 in the Vermont House. These centers, which would not be connected to hospitals, would provide low-risk birthing services performed by midwives. The bill is scheduled for final approval Thursday, April 17. 

As currently in the bill, the centers’ services would be covered by Medicaid and Medicare. 

Miss Vermont honored – the House Wednesday, April 16 passed a resolution congratulating Meara Seery of Brattleboro as Miss Vermont 2024. The resolution notes the contest “is not merely a beauty pageant” and paises Seery for graduating debt-free fom George Washington University, in part by working as a digital producer in the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. She also earned $1500 in scholarship prize money by winning the Brattleboro Winter Carnival contest. 

Emerge is in the building – The latest class of Emerge, the Democrat candidate training program for women, was in the State House Thursday, shadowing candidates and watching the House proceedings. Among them was Addie Lentzer, who has been an active advocate for the homeless since her years as a high school student in Bennington.