|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Vermont pours millions into treatment programs to combat the opioid epidemic while lawmakers lock away 15% of opioid settlement funds from a tool that could stem the tide: drug trafficking enforcement
by Compass Vermont
In the shadow of Vermont’s rolling hills, an underreported policy decision is perpetuating a deadly cycle. While the state pours millions into innovative treatment programs to combat the opioid epidemic, a little-known rule locks away 15% of opioid settlement funds from the very tool that could stem the tide: drug trafficking enforcement.
This imbalance isn’t just a bureaucratic oversight—it’s creating a haven for out-of-state dealers, as highlighted in the July 14 New York Times exposé, “The Heroin Pipeline That Linked New York to Vermont,” which reveals how Bronx-based traffickers exploit Vermont’s focus on harm reduction to flood the market with heroin and fentanyl.
Compass Vermont is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
An Expansion Zone for Drug Empires
As Vermont excels at keeping addicts alive through groundbreaking initiatives, critics argue it’s inadvertently boosting demand, turning the Green Mountain State into a lucrative expansion zone for drug empires. Vermont’s approach to the opioid crisis has earned national acclaim for its emphasis on treatment over punishment.
The state’s hub-and-spoke model, which connects specialized clinics with community providers for medication-assisted treatment (MAT), has made it a leader in access to care, with no waitlists and coverage for the uninsured.
Recent allocations from opioid settlement funds—stemming from multibillion-dollar lawsuits against manufacturers like Purdue Pharma and distributors—underscore this priority. For fiscal year 2026, Act 16 (H.218) appropriates approximately $6.5 million from the Opioid Abatement Special Fund to the Department of Health and other agencies, funding syringe services, an overdose prevention center pilot, housing supports, and contingency management programs, according to nashp.org.
Just last month, Governor Phil Scott signed off on over $1 million more for health department efforts, part of a broader $7.4 billion national settlement that Vermont joined in June 2025.
These funds are divided per national agreements: 15% to the state, 70% to abatement strategies, and 15% to local governments (the Subdivision Fund), distributed based on population and impact, which is a federal requirement in most opioid lawsuits.
Vermont Lawmakers Blocked Millions Available for Drug Enforcement
Yet, here’s the eye-opener: That 15% local share—discretionary funds meant for municipalities to address the crisis—is effectively barred from bolstering drug trafficking enforcement. Vermont lawmakers and the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, which recommends spending, have steered these dollars almost exclusively toward treatment and harm reduction, with no allocations for interdiction, investigations, or task force expansions in recent budgets.
According to WCAX television, Vermont has received $38 million in settlement funds from opioid settlements which could have funded drug trafficking enforcement with an additional $5.7 million to stop the ever-increasing influx of heroin and fentanyl.
This isn’t widely publicized; most Vermonters remain unaware, as committee notes from June 2025 focus on recovery associations and health initiatives without mentioning enforcement gaps.
Enforcement Left to Rely on Drying Up Federal Grants
The result? Vermont’s Narcotics Investigation Unit (NIU) and Drug Task Force continue to rely heavily on federal grants, like the 2015 award that added investigators but hasn’t seen proportional state boosts since.
With enforcement under-resourced, interstate pipelines thrive, as evidenced by fresh cases: In June 2025, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to 47 months for trafficking fentanyl into Vermont, while another New York resident faced charges for similar offenses, according to WCAX television.
Just days ago, the NYT detailed how a single overdose in Rutland unraveled a Bronx heroin network, but such busts are reactive, not preventive, due to funding constraints.
Attracting “Recovery Tourists”
This treatment-first strategy, while humane, creates a perverse incentive. By excelling at overdose reversal and MAT—Vermont ranks first nationally in treating opioid use disorder—it attracts “recovery tourists” from neighboring states like New York and New Hampshire, where access lags.
But without aggressive supply disruption, more addicts mean a bigger market. Dealers from urban hubs see Vermont as low-risk: The state’s decriminalization of small amounts of buprenorphine since 2021 and no-arrest policies for overdoses prioritize saving lives over prosecutions, allowing traffickers to expand with minimal interference.
As one June 2025 takedown of a 13-person New York drug network illustrates, these operations pump “poison” into rural areas like Vermont, where enforcement shortages let them flourish.
Settlement Agreements Allow Law Enforcement Expenditures
Critics, including some in law enforcement circles, argue this imbalance sustains the epidemic. Settlement agreements explicitly allow funds for “law enforcement expenditures relating to the opioid epidemic,” yet Vermont’s choices sideline them, potentially violating the spirit of supplementation over supplantation.
Redirecting even a portion of the 15% local share—estimated at millions annually—could fund additional NIU investigators, border interdiction tech, or HIDTA partnerships, adding resources without cutting treatment budgets, as demonstrated by the New York State Attorney General’s office.
Neighboring states like New Hampshire face similar crises but have debated diverting funds amid budget shortfalls, highlighting the need for balance.
Providing Input to a Potential Shift in Funding
The Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee is seeking local input—which provides an opportunity for Vermonters to push for more enforcement.
Saving lives is noble, but many argue that ignoring the pipeline only ensures more victims. To date, the evidence appears to be on their side.
By locking funds away from busting dealers, a case is being made that Vermont isn’t just treating addiction—it’s subsidizing the trade.
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Public Safety
“As Vermont excels at keeping addicts alive through groundbreaking initiatives, critics argue it’s inadvertently boosting demand, turning the Green Mountain State into a lucrative expansion zone for drug empires.”
The critics are 100% spot on.
Of course it is increasing demand.
Anytime you enable, support, and subsidize activities which are fundamentally immoral and illegal, you increase the demand for more of the same fundamentally immoral and illegal activities, as well as the immoral and illegal parasitic evil actors who will exploit them and the people engaging in and addicted to those activities.
The word “inadvertently” here applies to those who, through lack of common sense and a warped sense of true compassion and justice, fail to realize that, in the long run, they are not truly helping people, but opening the door for greater numbers of people to be hurt, abused, and enslaved.
God’s compassion and justice never condones or confirms us in our sins, but mercifully offers us repentance and transforms us from the inside out with His love, forgiveness, and healing. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest agent of harm reduction known to sinners.
You reported that ‘The Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee is seeking local input’. Where and how? Get that info out there and Im sure they would get input.
So where does this local funds go? Does that mean my town receives this money?
The legislature had a chance to do something about this and chose not to. They instead chose to use the money for their pet projects per usual. You know, another solar farm or something similar. That tells all of us where their priorities aren’t.
And then there is Sarah George. When you don’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, you send the message that it’s OK to repeat the behavior.
Of course, there is the Burlington City Council and the Mayor herself. Safe injection sites and clean needles rather than trying to get addicts off the dope.
*shrugs* But what do I know. I don’t understand I guess.
I predicted that, as wells as their increased income when Vt legalized Pot. We expanded their narrow market to all of Vermont and it’s tourist. Illegal pot has blossomed into a big business in Vt. Which fund the bigger market illegal drugs.
After-all we were known a ways back as the catch and release state and drug dealers loved it hear. And when Rutland was becoming successful driving them out the ACLU sued the city. Go figure.
Create the affliction en masse and offer the antidote en masse -aka $ymptom masker dependency. All associates and enablers will be rewarded handsomely. Why is the symbol of medicine the caduceus? (The traditional symbol of Hermes featuring two snakes winding around an often winged staff?)
On July 10, 2025, a mass overdose event occurred in West Baltimore – reportedly 25-27 people hospitalized. No follow up information as to what caused so many to succumb can be found. From reporting, the rapid response team is handing out naloxone kits around the affected community.
” Narcan® Nasal Spray is manufactured by Emergent BioSolutions, a Maryland-based pharmaceutical company.”
June 5, 2025 “Emergent BioSolutions Supports Victoria’s Voice Foundation’s National Naloxone Awareness Day Efforts on June 6 to Encourage Americans to Be Prepared for Opioid Emergencies (I also notice saturation of PSA’s running on this as well-it was not just for a day)
June 23, 2025 “Emergent BioSolutions Secures $62.4 Million Contract Modification for BAT® [Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) – (Equine)] to Bolster U.S. Biodefense Supply
July 1, 2025 “Emergent BioSolutions Expands NARCANDirect® to Offer KLOXXADO® (naloxone HCl) Nasal Spray 8 mg and Convenience Kits Amid Changes in Overdose Death Rate”
July 8, 2025 “Emergent BioSolutions Secures $51.9 Million Contract Modification Award for CNJ-016® [Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human)] (VIGIV) as part of U.S. Biodefense Preparedness Efforts”
Emergent Biosolutions First Quarter 2025 Financial Report:
First Quarter 2025 Total Revenues of $222.2 million, decrease of 26% versus prior year
First Quarter 2025 Net Income of $68.0 million, increase of 656% versus prior year
I never liked the plan to fund drug prevention programs in the schools with profits from the commercialized cannabis sales. But that is what was proposed.
I suggest that a sufficient portion of these funds go to at least quarterly programs into the the schools to reach students with drug prevention messages. It’s time to put Red Ribbon Drug Free back into the fall curriculum in every school. It’s time to reach out just before holiday and semester breaks when idle time may trigger temptations. And a big emphasis before summer break.
These should include some local stories. It should also include teaching the vulnerable, especially the girls, but sometimes boys, too, about sex trafficking tactics that can include a change in a relationship dynamic into something that would lead to a trafficking scenario. Drugs play a significant part in this scene, keeping “slaves” addicted makes it easier to control them.
The example of the Tobacco Legislation should be followed, money set aside from sales for cannabis education, old enough to remember the movie ‘Refer Madness’ in school and today’s cannabis is much stronger. Wasn’t the legalized sale said to increase tax revenue to the State? Where is it?
You aren’t likely to see added revenues to the state. They will be needed to fund increased mental health costs, homeless housing, and other community needs – overflow in ER rooms, school truancy, police needs…
This was all brought to the attention of the legislators before the commercialized cannabis vote was taken. Doctors from Colorado who had 5+ years of experience came to Vermont to warn us. But our newspapers were taking funds from the cannabis industry and not doing their jobs of providing Vermonters with investigative reporting. Check it out at vthope.net/llib.html