WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Vt safety official: More died from opiates than crashes

Vt safety official: More died from opiates than crashes

Montpelier, Vermont - January 25, 2012

More Vermonters died from opiate overdoses last year than murders and traffic fatalities combined. That's according to Vt. Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, who told lawmakers Wednesday that 99 people died in 2011 after overdosing on heroin and prescription painkillers.

Flynn says this is yet another reason why law enforcement needs access to the state's prescription drug monitoring system. The system was set up to help reduce prescription fraud and reduce the flow of opiates to addicts. But the database is not accessible by police unless they have a search warrant. Flynn argues that opening up the database would help police fight Vermont's growing addiction problem.

"The majority of people who go into rehab are recommended by law enforcement officers. So there's more than just an arrest function to this, there's an education piece, because one thing we're clear about from the law enforcement perspective-- we are not going to arrest our way out the prescription drug or the opiate problem in this state," Flynn said.

Privacy advocates like the ACLU strongly oppose granting police access. They say doing so would break the promise lawmakers made to protect Vermonters privacy when the database law passed in 2006.