Methamphetamine use is increasing nationally, and in Vermont. The majority of the Vermont Legislature have busied themselves waving social justice wands for symbolic display, fashioning a new utopia under the bloated dome — they are not addressing economic decline, skyrocketing food prices, or Vermont’s profound vulnerabilities to spiking inflation (i.e., state pensions). But when it comes to the scourge of methamphetamine and synthetic opioids, the Vermont progressives are a drug dealer’s best friends!
Methamphetamine is a manufactured chemical stimulant that has increased in use substantially since 2015. Methamphetamine is particularly damaging to the brain:
Once dependence forms, changes are made in how the brain functions and to its chemical makeup and circuitry. Compulsive drug-seeking behaviors and a loss of the ability to control how much and how often meth is taken can occur. This inability to control meth use coupled with the changes made in the brain are some of the primary hallmarks of addiction.
Methamphetamine addiction is arguably the most consistently challenging abuse disorder to treat effectively long term — making prevention all the more imperative. Unlike heroin and synthetic opioids, there are no drugs to counteract meth when a person overdoses. It is estimated methamphetamines resulted in more than 100,000 emergency room treatments in 2011. U.S. overdoses overall increased from 70,630 in 2019 to 91,799 in 2020. Overdose deaths from methamphetamine have skyrocketed during COVID: “The number of deaths involving psychostimulants has increased steadily since 2014 regardless of opioid involvement.”
More people now overdose from methamphetamine than from cocaine, heroine, or prescription drugs.
Methamphetamine overdose deaths increased 30% nationally in 2020 and 28.5% through April 2021; the number now exceeds 100,000 annually. The “top 10” states for meth seizures have included nearby New York and Pennsylvania (83 pounds recently), but New Hampshire and Maine feature prominently in the national trade (measured in deaths rather than busts). In 2021,
[Vermont] Health officials said that, throughout the U.S., stimulant drugs are becoming more widespread. They believe meth’s increased presence in Vermont is being driven by a cheaper, purer and more potent variety coming from Mexico. Health officials said fatal overdoses are a problem in southern Vermont every year. This is a trend they partly attribute to the fact that Interstate 91 runs through southeastern Vermont, and is a major trade route in the trafficking of illegal drugs that flow north from Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and the New York City area.
Methamphetamine is common in Vermont and New Hampshire: one recent bust arrested 13 “cross-border” associates.
This nightmare compounds the concurrent epidemic use of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl (and its numerous analogs) — more and more people are dying of cocktails that now include deadly meth.The federal government reports similar trafficking patterns for both drugs. Pennsylvania and Maine are in the top 10 for fentanyl:
Beginning in 2018, the Department of Justice committed additional resources to prosecute offenders trafficking in synthetic drugs, including the introduction of a new program seeking to reduce the supply of synthetic opioids in ten specific high impact areas of the country. As part of the program, Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (S.O.S.), the Department of Justice initiated an enforcement surge in these ten federal judicial districts.
Oregon has “led the nation” with legalization of methamphetamine, in a drive “to combat addiction using public health tools instead of incarceration.” Oregon’s 2020 law creates a drug treatment regimen funded by taxation on marijuana sales, a moral conundrum in itself.
By 2019, methamphetamine was the leading cause of overdose death in Oregon, with 78% of Oregonians knowing someone addicted. The state had the second highest rate of meth addiction in the nation, a 400% increase in 11 years. Activists seeking to eliminate criminal penalties for this toxic poison pointed to Portugal — which has borders. Legalizing methamphetamine possession in Oregon attracts people from neighboring states, much like Colorado’s weed frenzy. The result is that millions of dollars of pot money spent in Oregon to cure addiction, plus legalization, has yielded chaos:
The good news, Oregon State Medical Examiner Dr. Sean Hurst recently told lawmakers, is that the jump in Oregon’s alcohol-related deaths in 2020 flattened in the first half of 2021. The bad news: Drug overdose deaths, particularly those involving fentanyl and methamphetamine, soared to new highs.
The causes of addiction are many, and it is beyond government’s ability to reshape broken humans. But Vermont’s progressive “movement” has already created a perfect environment for increased drug addiction and related crime. Vermont would expunge the criminal records of methamphetamine possession: will it go the Oregon step and legalize the stuff? Progressive policies ardently embrace illegal immigration and open borders: almost all fentanyl now comes from Mexico. Vermont’s progressives favor voting, drivers’ licenses, and health care for illegal immigrants (“undocumented entrants” is the new PC synonym), and a lifting of border COVID restrictions. Much like COVID, opposing unrestricted travel to prevent the spread of the disease of irreversible meth addiction is not racist but regulatory — how is there to be any interdiction of these most dangerous drugs under such conditions?
Vermont’s far-out progressives indoctrinate children with racism, transgenderism, climate-apocalypse, and other unhealthy anxiety saturations that fuel addiction — whether to Twinkies of free suboxone on demand. Labeling police racist who arrest people of color transporting fentanyl or meth from their southern origins undermines effectiveness; decriminalization, reduced probation, restorative justice, and the racialization of drug crimes all create more victims by favoring offenders over public safety. This is out of balance.
In the midst of a declining economy, frightening food inflation, struggling farms, and escalating methamphetamine and fentanyl overdoses, Vermont’s progressive extremists are creating a welcoming invitation for drug traffickers, while rabidly seeking to whittle away Vermonters’ rights to protect themselves with firearms. Everything is upside down — a perfect environment for the wrong kind of commerce.
John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2022. All rights reserved.
If we really want to seriously reduce the market for opioids and the resultant crime in financing addiction, one thing we havn’t tried is to stop distributing Narcan at taxpayer expense. Call it Darwinian if you like, but addiction is a CHOICE. Everyone knows someone who quit using tobacco/nicotine and everyone knows someone who has dealt with tobacco-related diseases. We need to treat recreational opioid users with the same second-class citizen status as we do smokers. Instead we coddle them and give them free syringes/needles and propose “lounges” for them to shoot up in.
South Korea has no problem with drugs.
When asked why, the President said when we catch them, we electrocute them.
We have no problem.
South Korea also makes nice cars
I used to live close by Barre. Barre has a serious drug problem….Meth, Heroin, Pot, Cocaine…you name it….Barre has it…users and dealers. I spoke with a Barre policmena and asked why don’t they do something. He laughed and said his hands are tied…by liberal policies and the similar ACLU. He said that Barre police know who the users are, where they live and what crimes they commit to get the drugs. He also said they know exactly WHO the dealers are, where they live, where they sell, and how….and he knows where these Barre dealers get the stuff out of state and even WHEN they are making a “run” to get stuff. But law enforcement has their hands tied…all because of “Probable Cause” and RACE issues…most of the dealers are black & hispanic….if a policeman looks at a black dealer suspciously, they get sued , with the ACLU free lawyers…for Racism!.. There isn’t anough manpower in police to just HAPPEN to be on the spot when a drug deal is done. But they can’t get a search warrant to raid the dealers & users apartments. They finally gave up because the State lawyers and the ACLU gave free lawyers to get dealers and users “off” on “technicalities”… how an arrest went down…no probable cause. So Barre police have no choice but to turn a blind eye and let addiction, violence and ALL the crime that goes with it, happen – users commit crimes to get the drugs. Liberal progressives moan and cry about the drug problem, crime & human costs…BUT it is THEY who allow and foster– ALL OF IT!
I saw it firsthand. Before I left VT (thank God)…I lived a handful of miles, in a nice area …from Barre. for TWO YEARS before I left….there was a dirt road section that would lead in to Rt 14 and Rt 2….major inbound road to Barre & Montpelier workers. Almost every day, the SAME car would be parked 1/2 mile up this semi rural dirt road. It was a drug dealer. he was there like clock work, 7 – 8 AM….workers coming into town detour a tiny bit from Rt 2 and Rt 14 to buy their drugs. unseen on a dirt road.,…as opposed to being seen in a busy metro area of BArre-Montpelier. I had pictures of the car and plate no# and a description of the man selling. i called all local police and STATE Police in Waterbury…for TWO YEARS. They refused to do anything. they told me they know exactly WHO is, where he lives, what be does…they told me had has a long criminal record and under NO circumstance go near the car…because he was assumed armed and dangerous. I asked WHY don’t they go there. They stated no “probable cause” But I countered that legally police ARE allowed to go to him and ask to see his drivers liscense…at least that would scare him away, because he then knows police are around.. they refused. At the SAME time this guy was selling drugs for a couple years NEAR MANY nice houses…GUESS WHAT….burglaries and break in’s INCREASED GREATLY…the drug buyers saw many nice houses to plan on robbing to buy their drugs from the man on the road. NO one did anything about it and no one cared. So I am sick of seeing people moan about the drug problem, when it is easy to fix…arrest the dealers to start.
This is happening in every single town across our state.
vt trans employees are picking up 5 gallon buckets of hyper dermis needles alongside the roads in Randolph, at rest stops.
They are killing our sons and daughters, our grand children with this poison. How many grand parents have to raise their grand children because their sons and daughter have gone down the path of addiction and can no longer function in society.
We were the leading state in the nation for addicted births, 2014?
Yet leaders like our rep Maxine Grad make it easier to deal hardcore drugs.
We’ve created our own problems. This is a great cause that cuts across all walks and party lines it’s the plague that has destroyed generations across our state.
It would be a good cause for the VTGOP to champion. People are suffering massively. It would be good for our religios leaders to guide those in dealing with life’s stresses such that they don’t turn to alcohol and drugs to deal with our problems.
On top of that we pay others frequently women with a free home and the dealers set up camp and reside in our state for free.
And you don’t need to get a town permit to deal drugs or get an act 250 permit. It’s the easiest business in our state to run and operate!
Don’t think the dealers know this? You can thank Maxine Grad for making it so easy!
Hunter Biden had meth mouth too.
A photo is on his hard disc, just google for a pretty sight
Now, all his teeth are capped, as part of $20,000 cosmetic make over
For 20+ years, all elected officials have stepped up to a podium and declared Vermont has a drug problem and they will fix it. The Truth is we have a complicit government that profits from Vermont’s drug problem. Whether it be drug cartels (foreign or domestic) or pharmacutical companies who pushed opiods like candy – the government profits from all of it one way or another. The real drug pushers (get your vax!) sit in the seats of power and don’t expect them to do anything other than take money from both sides of the fence for their own profiteering.
i know huh? They are so racist on top of that they say is you are a minority we’ll held you become drug dealers with financial incentives…..because we don’t want to help you become a doctor, surgeon, lawyer, carpenter, plumber, etc…we want you to be drug dealers, it’s all you’re capable of…..yeah they actually write and propose that legislation.
Coming through Mexico…..from…..????
Do you think China has forgotten the opium wars? England ruined a powerful country, it took them 100 years to break the drug problem, don’t think other countries aren’t doing this to weaken us and ruin our people, power and money….
But it’s not a priority in the Vermont legislature. Yet every town knows where all the drug dealers hang out ruining, addicting your friends and family, one at a time….
it is beyond government’s ability to reshape broken humans……
more true words have never been spoken, where does one find the answer????
In another article we have NJ educational system suggesting dealing with stress by watching porn, masturbating and whatever kink might turn you on.
And this is yet another way to deal with life’s stresses.
How do you think this is going to work out as a long-term strategy? Do you think this will make stronger families and society more functional and happier?
lol……
And you think the state has all the answers. Man does not…..certainly this is NOT the plan to a fulfilling life….perhaps prostitution, but I don’t know. Perhaps we can rise above sex for money, just seems a bit shallow, can’t we aim a bit higher?