Breaking Bennington

An article in NYT this week depicts Bennington, Vermont -- just over the border from Rensselaer County -- as a place overrun by heroin. Says a Vermont state trooper in the story: "The quaint town of Bennington has had a rude awakening of drugs ... Everyone is doing it... It's in the high school. The kids are doing it right in school. You find Baggies in the hallway." In January, Vermont governor Peter Shumlin devoted his entire State of the State address to the topic of heroin and opiate addiction. [NYT] [Shumlin admin]

Comments

Honestly, I'm glad they are finally going to address the issue, but this isn't anything new. It seems it just has to get as bad as it is for anyone to care or do anything about it. T

My 22 year old cousin died of a drug overdose (not heroin) in 2001 after years of heroin and other drug use and stints in rehab. At her funeral her parents asked my Mom how she could let me live in New York City (I was 29, my mother had no say where I lived) wasn't she worried something would happen to me? We were stunned - um look where we are? At your daughter's funeral! In Bennington, VT.

The Town of Bennington is refuting much of the article in the NY Times.

MAUHS Principal Sue Maguire said, "The kids are not doing it right in school. We have never found a single baggie of heroin or anything else. The trooper has sensationalized a serious problem at the expense of the school and the community."

http://www.reformer.com/state/ci_25324617/bennington-officials-react-draft-response-nyt-heroin-article

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