Committee on the Judiciary United States

Community Solutions to Breaking the Cycle of Heroin and Opioid Addiction Committee on the Judiciary United States

The heroin and opioid crisis is a complex challenge. It goes into neighborhoods, it goes into communities of all kinds and sizes, in urban and rural areas alike throughout the country. The state of Vermont has not been spared. Since 2012, demand for addiction treatment in Vermont has risen by more than 770 percent. The situation in Vermont is consistent with what is occurring around the country. There are numerous stories of young people whose lives have either been ruined or ended because of their addiction. It is not possible to arrest our way out of this problem. It is not just a law enforcement problem. Prevention, education, and treatment must be employed along with law enforcement. Furthermore, the criminal justice system on the federal level can learn from local systems. When we look for creative solutions, many times the solutions we find at the federal level are actually being done at the local level, where they've been proven to be effective.