26
Heroin Addiction
From quaint fishing villages on the coastlines of Maine and Rhode Island
to picturesque New Hampshire towns and covered bridges, to the pasto-
ral countryside and snow-capped mountains of Vermont, New England
has long been known for its charm and beauty. But in recent years the
region has become known for something else: a devastating heroin prob-
lem. In Rhode Island hospital admissions for heroin addiction rose from
5,454 in 2009 to 7,642 in 2013.
Connecticut had a 48 percent in-
crease in heroin-overdose deaths
from 2012 to 2013, and heroin ad-
diction has become such a serious
problem in Massachusetts that the
governor declared a public health
emergency in March 2014.
One of New England’s worst
heroin crises is in Vermont, where
the number of people seeking treat-
ment for heroin and other opioid abuse has risen
770 percent
since 2000.
In the small town of Bennington, Vermont, where poet Robert Frost is
buried behind the historic Old First Congregational Church, the her-
oin problem is among the worst in the state. “The quaint town of Ben-
nington has had a rude awakening of drugs,” says Vermont state trooper
Wayne Godfrey, who adds that “everyone” in town is using heroin. “It’s
in the high school. The kids are doing it right in school. You find Baggies
in the hallway.”
32
Vermont governor Peter Shumlin is gravely concerned about his
state’s heroin epidemic, so much so that in January 2014 he devoted his
entire annual address to it. Calling the problem a “full-blown heroin cri-
sis,” Shumlin said: “In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug
addiction threatens us. It threatens the safety that has always blessed our
state. It is a crisis bubbling just beneath the surface that may be invisible
to many, but is already highly visible to law enforcement, medical per-
sonnel, social service and addiction treatment providers, and too many
Vermont families. It requires all of us to take action before the quality
of life that we cherish so much is compromised.”
33
Shumlin went on to
quote a few sobering facts: Heroin overdose deaths in Vermont nearly
doubled between 2012 and 2013, and the state drug task force estimates
Vermont governor
Peter Shumlin is
gravely concerned
about his state’s
heroin epidemic.
“
”
