The Data is Clear: The Current Approach to Drugs is Not Working to Keep Vermonters Safe, Harms Individuals and Families, and Wastes Resources

Since 2010, nearly 10,000 arrests for drug possession were made in Vermont - most for possession of low-level amounts of controlled substances.

Overdose rates continue to rise at a record pace. In the 12-month period ending December 2022, Vermont recorded 266 fatal overdoses, a 43 percent increase over a two year period and the highest number of fatal overdoses since 2009.

Risk of Overdose Increases Substantially After Periods in Jail or Prison: an individual is more than nearly 12 times more likely to die from a fatal overdose within the first two weeks after release from incarceration than others in the general population.

Criminal Convictions Reduce Lifetime Earning Potential and deepen inequality: People convicted of a misdemeanor see their annual earnings reduced by an average of 16 percent

Criminalizing is Costly to State and Local Budgets. Researchers have estimated that in Chittenden County the average cost of a single arrest in 2017 was $316.95, and the average cost of a Superior Court case was over $2,000

In felony drug cases Black people are 18 percent more likely to receive a sentence to incarceration than White people in comparable circumstances. Black people are defendants in criminal cases at rates that exceed those faced by White people.

From 2000 to 2018, the overdose death rate per 100,000 increased in Vermont from 6 to 27, a change of 359 percent.

Vermont is one of just eight states that maintain sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine, with a disparity of 2.5 times the quantity of powder vs. crack cocaine subject to the potential 30 year maximum sentence.

Drugs and alcohol are the third leading cause of death in U.S. Jails.

Sources:

  1. Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer

  2. Center for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional drug overdose death counts

  3. Vermont Judiciary, Chittenden County Treatment Court Burlington, VT Evaluation Report

  4. Conviction, Imprisonment, and Lost Earnings: How Involvement with the Criminal Justice System Deepens Inequality. Brennan Center, 2020

  5. Vera Institute, Overdose Deaths and Jail Incarceration, Using Data to Confront Two Tragic Legacies of the U.S. War on Drugs, 2020

  6. Families for Justice Reform (FAMM), Crack Cocaine Disparity Reform in the States; VT. STAT. ANN. tit. 18, § 4231(c)

  7. Justice Reinvestment in Vermont Results of Racial Equity in Sentencing Analysis (April 2022)