A decade past, then-Governor Peter Shumlin, overwhelmed by the Obama open-borders-driven opioid crisis, promised to implement a plan to address this rising scourge. No, he didn’t demand Obama close the border and stop the drugs pouring in. He did what Democrats always do.
He used it as an excuse to grow the government and rob taxpayers. [From an NPR interview dated Jan 9th]
ELDER-CONNORS: Shumlin, a Democrat, pitched lawmakers on a multipoint plan largely focused on expanding the state’s recovery centers and increasing access to addiction treatment. Ten years later, Vermont has largely implemented Shumlin’s plan and, by some measures, made progress. South Burlington resident Jess Kirby, who first took opiates as a teenager, says she got on a list for methadone in 2006 and waited for two years.
JESS KIRBY: You had to call every month and make your case, basically, on a voicemail that, hey, I’m still here. I’m calling. I still need treatment – please keep me on the list type of thing. And if you didn’t call, then you would get put back to the bottom of the list.
ELDER-CONNORS: The state has since expanded its treatment system and largely eliminated waiting lists. There are nearly 12,000 Vermonters currently in treatment, about double the number in 2014. But Kirby and other recovery workers say progress in Vermont and the rest of the country has stalled, largely due to more powerful drugs, pandemic isolation and a rise in homelessness. Former Governor Peter Shumlin, in an interview last week, said he doesn’t think public policy in Vermont has kept up.
NPR shares some personal stories that, while relevant, do not address the actual problem, and the facts that NPR shares make that clear.
– A decade after Vermont announced an effort to address the state’s opioid epidemic, fatal overdoses have quadrupled, and the crisis is more visible because more people are living on the streets. Liam Elder-Connors with Vermont Public has this report.
-The number of fatal overdoses in Vermont has skyrocketed, driven by the rise of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s essentially replaced heroin. The dramatic spike in overdoses led Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, to launch a new team of paramedics who exclusively respond to overdoses.
Vermont is an open-border sanctuary refuge for illegals, cartels, and drugs, and according to at least one commenter on VermontGrok, everyone knows where the drugs are. Vermont did school closings, lockdowns, and quarantines. Their defund-the-police banter resulted in fewer law enforcement officers and a culture where cops were targets, not partners in crime prevention.
The state’s Democrat majority has focused on creating mental health issues, encouraging economic decline and homelessness, and supporting a policy that allows more drugs into the country and the state while hamstringing law enforcement.
The cure isn’t more clinics, therpaists, helplines, or Narcan vending machines. None of those things will prevent drugs from getting to people who are downtrodden as a result of wrongheaded political priorities. And while we applaud the successes of those who have benefitted from the programs, the net result of all that time and money is a quadrupling of overdose deaths.
Gov. Peter Shumlin’s decade-old state of the state did get one thing right. “Frankly, what we’ve done, in my view – and the tragedy is – we’ve accepted this as sort of part of life as opposed to attacking it with everything that we have. And I think we’ve got to get back to focusing on – this is not acceptable.” The irony is that Schumlin’s exhortation is correct, but you won’t solve it unless the focus shifts to a Vermont run by someone other than Democrats. And not just the next election but every election.
The root cause of this decline is Democrat policy and Democrat rule, and you need only look at places Democrats have controlled for Decades to see where your state is going.
Today might look dreadful, but ten years from now, this will look like the good old days.
