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Concern about Trump administration opposition raised
By Guy Page
The City of Burlington has secured sufficient insurance coverage to move forward with plans for Vermont’s first sanctioned overdose prevention center, also known as a “safe injection site,” according to an August 13 Vermont Department of Health report.
The state’s OK follows months of city-state discussions on the adequacy of insurance, as determined by the state, which is required for all state grantees. The City and its non-profit operator of the proposed safe injection site have not yet announced a site for the controversial center.
Under Section 2 of Act 178 (2024), the Department of Health is required to distribute $2.2 million in grant funding to Burlington to establish the center, once the city submitted an approved proposal and met all grant conditions. The Burlington City Council approved the plan in April, and the Department signed off later that month.
Progress slowed in May after questions arose about whether the city’s insurance met state requirements. In July, the Department, working with the Vermont Risk Manager, determined that Burlington’s existing coverage was adequate for serving as the fiscal agent for the project.
The delay in finalizing the grant agreement means the Department will retroactively reimburse the city for eligible costs incurred since July 1. The grant will run for 24 months and be distributed in eight payments.
It is unclear whether the insurance discussion focused on the possibility of the Trump administration opposing the project. Addressing such opposition would definitely add legal expense, and possibly loss of federal funding in other areas and even financial penalties. During Trump’s first term, US Attorney for Vermont Christina Nolan reportedly promised to prosecute officials if they opened a government-supported safe injection site. This year, Republicans in NYC have asked the current Trump administration to shut down two safe injection sites there, possibly invoking his late-July Executive Order to reduce drug abuse and homelessness.
The $2.2 million will fund the center’s launch and operations in compliance with Act 178 and state operating guidelines. Act 178 was passed in 2024 and promptly vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott, who said funding would be better spent on proven, effective drug abuse recovery and treatment programs. However, the Legislature overrode his veto – one of the last times it was able to do so prior to the November, 2024 election that ended the Democrat/Progressive supermajority.
Earlier this year the City Council authorized Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, an advocate of decarceration, to operate the center under a program called Downtown Health Project. VDC was unable to reach VCJR spokespeople to ask about any progress in locating a site for the center.
Supporters of two NYC safe injection sites say they have contributed to a decrease in overdose deaths. Critics say it has had the opposite effect on drug consumption and the crime and other social ills that accompany it.
Cover photo: Govfacts.org.
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Categories: Burlington
How is pushing heroin, fentanyl and sanctioned overdosing safe? Just curious.
How does this pass an act250 permit for commercial use when it took 10 years for Costco to get a permit for pumping gas? Just curious.
How does loving your neighbor, loving your enemy come out of injecting yourself with lethal drugs, oft leading to overdose and death?
Some of us are curious about this.
Let me say this, they don’t love you, they are profiting and gaining power over you just like the drug dealers coming into our state from NY, MA and Mexico, courtesy of China, they don’t love you either. They too are making money and getting power over you with lies and drugs.
Wonder if this has any tie to the recent visit from Chinese officials to Vermont, to set up drug networks?
Ya Vermont is full of folks who want to worsen drug problems 😩
We must get these addicts off the street and into long term rehab and reeducation to be productive citizens
So, if somebody shoots up in the parking lot, then goes in to the safe site to shoot up again and overdoses….. I guess it’s a good idea for Burlington to have insurance.
All I can think of when Burlington is mentioned is the song Big Rock Candy Mountain (except the line “I’m bound to do where there ain’t no snow’). Just change the ” “streams of alcohol to “streams of fentanyl” and it could be BTV’s anthem.
Steven, ‘snow’ could be Heroin which was replaced by Fentanyl
I hope Trump shuts it down in person. What a completely illegal and illicit sham. Open Society money via Soros. The Communists are here and they wont let go.
Maybe the Burlington commies are pushing this now because they sense that the walls are closing in on them. Orange Man Bad and Pam Bondi will not tolerate this nonsense, even if most of the voters of Burlington are going along with Mayor Emma-Hyphen on her big, innovative idea to cure the “disease” of substance use disorder, by creating even more disorder. This proposal is no more “harm reduction”
than is giving away hundreds of free needles and having them bloodied and pathogenic and ending up discarded on the streets where children and pets can come in contact. Peter Shumlin set quite an example years ago of rolling out the red carpet of empathy to IV drug junkies. His “hub and spoke” model seems to only have produced more junkies and more acceptance of their lifestyle choices…yes, there I said it…CHOICES.
Have you seen the ads on the Tell A Vision about how people with substance use disorders have a “disease” and that it’s not a choice… unbelievable!!!!!
(Un)safe injection sites enable the addicts harmful usage and delays their recovery to sobriety. By delaying recovery, ENABLING efforts HARM, they do not help. While using, the addict is at great risk of contracting disease, social and economic deterioration, risk to the safery of the community, relationship destruction, as well as high risk of overdose, imprisonment, and death. Addicts who continue using will overdose, become imprisoned, or die.
This is basic knowledge for those who know addiction and what is involved with recovery. While most enabling is unintentional by well meaning people, Burlington’s Mayor and Legislators who should know better, are by this measure, intentionally ENABLING usage of dangerous and potentially lethal illegal substances by those with a very difficult drug problem.
INSTEAD:
Encourage Recovery.
Provide Avenues for Detox and Recovery Support Programs like NA.
Thank you, Doctor – though these haughty extremists obviously must know better about illegal & highly dangerous drugs than do those who possess mere medical degrees……or at least they believe so. Did they pay ANY attention to the letters sent to the legislature by dozens of VT pediatricians years ago begging the state NOT to legalize Marijuana due to known dangers & health implications especially (but not solely) for youngsters? NOPE.
They also know that illicit programs like this have failed all around the country and internationally. Yet here we are. Surprise!
May I add that much of this drug addiction can also be curbed by fighting illegal immigration, severely penalizing and imprisoning drug dealers & cartel members both on domestic soil & foreign, and hiring & training more police in Vermont, not less.
But again, these miscreants know best AND they “somehow” profit from their unscrupulous public policies. It’s a win/win when you’re as amoral as are they.