Leahy Announces $1.75 M. For Vermont Drug Task Force

. . . Funds Will Support Anti-Heroin And Anti-Meth Initiative

WILLISTON, Vt. (Friday, Dec. 1) – Senator Patrick Leahy announced Friday that the Vermont Drug Task Force will receive $1.75 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice to combat increased drug activity in Vermont.  Leahy made the announcement at the State Police Barracks, joined by Vermont State Public Safety Commissioner Kerry Sleeper and other law enforcement officials.

Like other states, Vermont has faced a rise in heroin and methamphetamine use and trafficking in recent years, and the Task Force, which is the only one of its kind in Vermont, has led investigations to disrupt and dismantle trafficking networks that have brought illegal drugs into and throughout Vermont.  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.  Vermont state health officials estimate the number of Vermonters currently under treatment for heroin at around 1000, estimated to be only a fraction of the number of people actually using the drug.  The Task Force – which, through the partnership with Leahy, has received federal funding since 2001 -- has successfully worked with state and local law enforcement officers to address the rising issue of drug activity in Vermont.  Leahy says Vermont’s Task Force has become a model that other New England states are beginning to learn from.

“The Task Force has focused and magnified our efforts to combat drug trafficking in Vermont,” said Leahy.  “Before the Task Force, Vermont, like other states, lacked a plan to deal with these problems, and the scattershot approach was no match for the concerted efforts of drug rings to expand their activities here.  Countering drug trafficking is tough, slogging police work, and the results are not immediately seen.  But the efforts of the members of the Task Force to combat these activities are among the most successful in the region.”

Friday’s announcement builds on partnership Leahy has forged with the Task Force since its inception.  Leahy is the ranking member and soon-to-be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees federal anti-crime and anti-drug programs.  Leahy also is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which annually decides funding on anti-drug programs.  Leahy has secured more than $6.75 million in the last five years to help Vermont address rising drug use.  The funding has allowed for the continued employment of five Vermont State Police troopers within the Task Force, and of a drug chemist within the Vermont. 

The new funds will allow the Task Force to continue to support two additional undercover state troopers, two undercover municipal officers, an additional drug prosecutor, a civilian drug intelligence analyst and a business administrator.  The Task Force also works closely with intervention and treatment programs, corrections and court officials, and with prosecutors to reduce heroin and other substance abuse in Vermont.

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