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Fatal overdose in Vermont has increased by 500 percent over the past five years.<\/em><\/p>\n By Kastalia Medrano, Filter<\/strong><\/p>\n Vermont has unveiled operating guidelines for overdose prevention centers (OPCs), which will include smoking consumption areas and potentially mobile sites. The state became the third to authorize OPC on June 17, in a dramatic eleventh-hour override<\/a> of the veto issued<\/a> by Gov. Phil Scott (R).<\/p>\n The Vermont Department of Health published the guidelines September 13, two days before its deadline to do so.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s first OPC is expected to be a brick-and-mortar location for Burlington, but the legislation also allows for mobile units. These are defined as OPCs \u201cthat can move locations, such as a van or a bus, or a non-permanent unit\u2026that operates for less than 180 days.\u201d The only other requirements are that mobile OPCs have access to have potable water and phone service and not permit smoking consumption \u201cindoors.\u201d<\/p>\n The guidelines<\/a> require OPCs to have an area for smoking drugs, like fentanyl or cocaine, operational within 12 months of opening. If it won\u2019t be ready in time, the health department will allow an extension of up to another 12 months. OPC must also have \u201cfire-proof ash disposal for smoking-consumption areas,\u201d plus fire extinguishers. If indoors, smoking areas will be required to have a separate ventilation system from the one serving the rest of the building. The latter requirement in particular has been a logistical barrier to including safer smoking in OPC proposed in the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n Neither fentanyl nor cocaine are smoked using a combustion process, i.e. burning them with flame like a cigarette. Combustion destroys them, which is the main reason that claims of fentanyl-laced marijuana<\/a> never turn out to be true. \u201cSmoking\u201d in this context actually means \u201cvaping,\u201d<\/a> which doesn\u2019t produce smoke nor ash the way cigarettes do.<\/p>\n Fatal overdose in Vermont has increased by 500 percent over the past five years. An April 2024 summary<\/a>\u00a0from the state health department showed around 95 percent of overdose deaths involved fentanyl. Almost two out of every three overdose deaths in 2023 also involved cocaine, a sharp increase from previous years.<\/p>\n Vermont Department of Public Health via Filter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2019, more than half the autopsy reports for people who died of overdose listed the route of administration as injection, while 15 percent listed smoking. In 2021<\/a>, the most recent year for which data are available, 37 percent of overdose deaths were associated with injection while the rate for smoking rose to 29 percent.<\/p>\n This lines up with shifts in patterns of use across North America<\/a>, particularly in the West. As fentanyl rapidly supplanted heroin in many regions during the COVID-19 pandemic, harm reduction organizations began recording a mass shift from injecting to smoking as people attempted to mitigate a higher-potency supply.<\/p>\n Rhode Island, which in 2021 became the first state to authorize OPCs through a legislative process, is expected to open its first site<\/a> before the end of 2024. It will include inhalation booths<\/a> to accommodate safer smoking and goes further than Vermont in explicitly protecting \u201cinhaling, exhaling, burning, vaporizing or carrying\u201d any substances intended for consumption. Including via \u201celectronic vaporization devices,\u201d though commercial vapes run too hot to work well for a lot of substances other than nicotine.<\/span><\/p>\n Minnesota quietly authorized OPCs in May 2023 with Senate File 2934<\/a>, which authorized funding for up to 15 \u201csafe recovery sites\u201d offering harm reduction services \u201cincluding but not limited to: safe injection spaces; sterile needle exchange.\u201d The legislation doesn\u2019t mention smoking, but the sites won\u2019t actually allow on-site consumption of any kind when they first open; the state health department has committed to adding the service \u201ceventually<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n OnPoint NYC<\/a>, the nonprofit operating what are currently the only two authorized OPC in the U.S., has ventilated communal smoking rooms. At one of its two Manhattan locations, most participants inject opioids; at the other, most smoke crack cocaine. Both sites operate under city jurisdiction; New York State has stalled on OPC authorization<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n In April, Vermont Commissioner of Health Dr. Mark Levine testified<\/a> that while on-site deaths at OPC were \u201crare,\u201d they weren\u2019t an appropriate use of opioid settlement funds<\/a> for a rural state like Vermont. (There has never<\/a> been a recorded on-site death at an OPC.)<\/p>\n \u201cDedicated rooms to allow for smoking may change the design and expense and other logistical considerations,\u201d Levine told legislators, and \u201cit is not clear how an occasional visit from a van can produce desired outcomes in a condition that requires frequent use.\u201d<\/p>\n Burlington is the state\u2019s most populous city. Any mobile units would have fixed schedules, similar to how many syringe service programs conduct outreach.<\/p>\n In July, the American Civil Liberties Union sued<\/a> Gov. Scott\u2019s administration for withholding public records\u2014emails exchanged with Levine\u2014that could show \u201cpolitical interference by the Scott administration to undermine\u201d OPC. Levine altered<\/a> the final report of the state Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee before it was presented to legislators, removing the recommendation to allocate funding to OPC.<\/p>\n This article was originally published by\u00a0Filter<\/a>, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, or sign up for its\u00a0newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Biden Acknowledges That Marijuana Rescheduling Isn\u2019t A Done Deal Yet As He Touts Administration\u2019s Reform Efforts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Vermont Officials Detail Rules For Safe Drug Consumption Sites, Including Mobile Units<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Fatal overdose in Vermont has increased by 500 percent over the past five years. By Kastalia Medrano, Filter Vermont has unveiled operating guidelines for overdose prevention centers (OPCs), which will include smoking consumption areas and potentially mobile sites. The state became the third to authorize OPC on June 17, inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":77831,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77832,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77830\/revisions\/77832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Untitled-3.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Vermont Officials Detail Rules For Safe Drug Consumption Sites, Including Mobile Units<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"