A kit with the overdose-reversing drug Narcan Credit: Courtesy: Department of Health
Three people have died from drug overdoses within five days in Chittenden County, police said Thursday, though it’s unclear whether the fatalities are linked to a particular batch of drugs.

At least two of the deaths appear to involve opioids, wrote Jackie Corbally, the Burlington Police Department’s drug, mental health, homelessness policy and operations manager, in a press release.

“These deaths may be clustered due to coincidence,” Corbally wrote. “Nonetheless, three deaths in five days is cause for concern.”

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Chittenden County overdose deaths dropped by half in 2018, from 35 to 17, even as the state tally continued to rise. Local officials have credited the drop to concerted intervention and response efforts, including the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

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Still, the county experiences periodic spates of overdoses, which can sometimes be traced to the local drug supply. In January, the University of Vermont Medical Center treated seven patients for overdoses within seven hours. None of those patients died, state health officials said.

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Derek Brouwer was a news reporter at Seven Days 2019-2025 who wrote about class, poverty, housing, homelessness, criminal justice and business. At Seven Days his reporting won more than a dozen awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and...

3 replies on “Drug Overdoses Claim Three Lives in Five Days in Chittenden County”

  1. The lab results will probably find fentanyl. That’s usually the case in fatalities now.
    I wish we could give the dealers a test-stick so they don’t unintentionally give out fatal doses. Such sticks are available in Canada, and could be made available here. Even the dealers don’t want to kill their customers! Good chance these three knew the same dealer…

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