MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont lawmakers are poised to adopt sweeping standards for a statewide diversion program to get some offenders into drug treatment and out of the judicial system. Here’s a look at heroin and opiate-related statistics in the state.
-Since 2009, serious drug crimes up 46 percent
-Almost 80 percent of Vermont’s incarcerated population addicted or in prison for related offenses
-Treatment for heroin or opiate abuse up from 399 in 2000 to 3,479 in 2012, a per capita rate now second in the nation
-Over $2 million in heroin and opiates trafficked weekly into Vermont
- In 2012, heroin use rose 35 percent
- Five times as many suspected heroin dealers were indicted in 2013 as in 2010
-In 2013, there were 21 heroin deaths, more than double the 2012 count of nine
Sources: Gov. Peter Shumlin; Vermont state data; the Justice Center of the Council on State Governments.
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