Vermont health officials, Burlington update House committee on overdose prevention center implementation

Theresa Wood, chair of the House Human Services Committee, opened the Jan. 14 committee meeting by calling for an update on the overdose prevention center authorized by the legislature last year for the City of Burlington.

Mark Levine, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, told the committee the department published operating guidelines for overdose prevention centers on schedule "on September 13, 2024." He said the guidance is not a rule-making product but that stakeholders have treated the guidance as setting strong operational expectations. Levine said the guidance drew on experience from syringe services programs, recovery centers, the Drug Policy Alliance, Vermont Medical Society members, researchers at New York University and Brown University, Burlington city staff, and other stakeholders.

Levine said Vermont has not yet received a grant proposal from the City of Burlington and therefore has not released the $1,100,000 referenced in the statute from the opioid abatement special fund. "We have not yet received a grant proposal from the city, which means that at the present time, we have not really awarded the $1,100,000 from the opioid abatement special fund to…