Burlington Has Surpassed Last Year's OD Tally — and It's Only August

Drug test strips at Howard Center Safe Recovery Credit: James Buck

The number of overdoses that Burlington police responded to this year has already surpassed last year’s total, city data show, as the drug crisis continues to reach unprecedented levels.

Burlington police answered 265 overdose calls through July 23, compared to 252 during all of 2022, according to figures released on Friday. The vast majority have occurred in the city’s downtown core, where the effects of the drug crisis have become increasingly visible.

It’s reflective of an increasingly volatile drug supply that has made addiction more dangerous, disruptive and harder to treat. The stats are fueling the calls of local leaders and advocates who believe the state must do more to respond.

“Before the pandemic we were making real progress and saving lives,” Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a press release. “Because fentanyl and meth are now the dominant drugs in the community, the tactics of that period are no longer nearly as effective, but the principles that guided that success still represent our best path forward. This moment demands treatment innovation and a redoubling of harm reduction and interdiction efforts at all levels of government.”

Scott Pavek, Burlington’s substance-use policy analyst, added, “We must modernize our statewide system of care for substance use disorder to match the reality of drug use in Vermont communities.”

The rate of overdoses in Burlington took off sometime last summer, and the trend has only worsened since. The rise is all the more dramatic when compared to figures from just several years ago. Between 2015 and 2017, Burlington police responded to an average of six overdoses a month; this June, they averaged two overdoses a day — a roughly tenfold increase.

Many overdoses have been reversed by fellow drug users without any official response — unnoticed and untallied.

City analysts now project the total number of overdose calls will approach 500 by the end of the year.

Drug-related deaths are harder to track in real time because the results of drug tests conducted as part of autopsies can take time. Preliminary data shows an increase, though.

Fifty-five people died from accidental drug overdoses in Chittenden County last year. Through the first six months of 2023, at least 31 people have died.