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Sen. Leahy with Vt. Coalition of Teen Centers Executive Director Nicole
Bachand at the Rutland Town Meeting on Heroin in February 2001.
Gov. Dean addresses the town meeting.
Sen. Leahy addresses the town meeting.
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Vermonters have had to confront a crisis
in the abuse of heroin and other narcotic substances. In the last five
years, the number of heroin-related arrests and the number of people seeking
treatment for heroin use in
Vermont has more than
doubled. State health officials estimate the number of Vermonters
currently seeking treatment for heroin at around 1,200, which is almost
certainly a fraction of the number of people actually using the drug, which
is estimated to be between 2,000 and 3,000. Between 1999 and 2000,
heroin arrests doubled, from 78 to 159, and doubled again between 2002 and
2003. And between 1990 and 2002, 85 Vermonters died of heroin
overdoses.
Other states may be able to
adjust to and live with such ravage and attrition, but here in
Vermont we are
not willing to do that.
In October 2000, a collaboration of law enforcement agencies
throughout Vermont successfully seized more than 1,000 bags
of heroin from three Vermont communities. A month
later, three Rutland residents were murdered after a night of
excessive drinking and drug use. And Vermonters were again saddened by
the January 2001 death of Christal Jones, the 16-year-old Vermont girl who lost her
life in an apartment in the Bronx after her apparent
involvement in a prostitution and drug shuttling scheme.
In February 2001, I convened two town meetings, one in
Burlington and the other in Rutland, to address the
growing problem of heroin addiction. Those in attendance included
Governor Howard Dean; state legislators; local officials; local, state and
federal law enforcement representatives; educators; youth program leaders;
and prevention and treatment officials.
Early on, I came to realize that increased law enforcement efforts
alone will not help
Vermont win the war on drugs.
Instead, I called for a comprehensive three-prong approach to combating
substance abuse: prevention, enforcement and treatment. We must do what
we can to support the efforts of law enforcement to safeguard our
communities, particularly by deterring involvement of our young people in
drug abuse. We must also increase the emphasis on education and
treatment, more use of drug courts and more methadone clinics to help heroin
addicts stay off illegal drugs.
Since 2001, I have secured more than $23
million dollars in targeted appropriations and grants to support prevention,
treatment and law enforcement efforts in
Vermont. I joined
with colleagues in 2002 to make law the 21st Century Department of
Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, which has moved federal anti-drug
policy toward a more balanced approach that includes added attention to
prevention and treatment. This legislation authorized $172 million
through fiscal year 2005 to support State and local adult and juvenile drug
courts, which provide treatment as an alternative to jail for nonviolent
offenders who stay off of drugs; authorized the use of Federal funds for
jail-based substance abuse programs, which attempt to reduce recidivism by
reducing drug dependency among prisoners; established a Federal demonstration
project to reduce recidivism by recently-released offenders, and authorizes
funding to assist similar State projects; and authorized funding for Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) police training in South and Central Asia to
reduce the supply of drugs entering the United States.
This
page was created as a resource for Vermonters and those concerned about drug
addiction and drug-related crimes. Please feel free to contact Senator Leahy with
your comments. Senator Leahy would like to continue this dialogue and
looks forward to hearing from you.
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