By KATY SAVAGE
Eagle Times
The opioid crisis has plagued communities in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Stephen Hill, of Claremont was arrested for possession of heroin, fentanyl and bath salts hours before Trump’s speech.
Hill, 40, was walking in the middle of the road on Route 5 in Hartland when police arrested him around 1:30 a.m. Monday, according to a police statement.
Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase said when he started working as a police officer in Claremont in 1990, drugs were occasionally talked about. Now, “it’s part of our language,” he said.
“When we say, ‘the drug epidemic,’ … it almost feels a little cliché,” Chase said. “Until you go into these houses and see some of these people … open sores on their face and teeth rotting away, it really is (an epidemic).”
Chase didn’t watch Trump’s speech Monday but he said current laws are strong enough for police to tackle drugs. What’s needed, he said, are more treatment centers.
“We’re seeing so many people that need treatment but unless they’re arrested they’re not getting treatment,” he said.
State Rep. Francis Gauthier, R-Claremont, also didn’t watch Trump’s speech but his views were aligned with the president’s proposals. Gauthier partly blamed pharmaceutical companies for overmedicating patients.
When asked about Trump’s focus on the death penalty, Gauthier suggested his support.
“Those drug dealers know how deadly fentanyl is, yet they keep selling it,” he said.
While some legislators were supportive, some had hesitations.
“I have serious concerns with some aspects of President Trump’s proposal and rhetoric,” Rep. Annie Kuster, D-NH2, said in a statement. “The constant message I hear in New Hampshire from law enforcement, treatment providers, the recovery community, and others is that we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis.”
Kuster leads the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force, which is trying to strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs and expand access to naloxone, among other priorities.
Some of Trump’s initiatives have been underway in New Hampshire.
Gov. Chris Sununu said he met with the president at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and stressed the need for adequate federal funding.
“As governor, I will always take the opportunity to advocate for our state, and today New Hampshire’s leaders showed the president our unique programs, which have the ability to serve as a model of best practice across this country,” Sununu said in a statement issued Monday. “We were one of the first states into this crisis but I have no doubt that we will be the first state out of it.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, is part of the Common Sense Caucus, which recently helped negotiate a $6 billion bipartisan budget agreement to address the drug crisis over the next two years. Shaheen supported many of Trump’s proposals but she, like Kuster, urged Trump to make the opioid crisis a priority — an effort in which some say Trump has previously fallen short.
“What’s been missing is follow through,” Shaheen said in a prepared statement. “We need the president to commit to providing the resources necessary to win this fight … President Trump must lead a national effort. If he does that, there will be broad bipartisan support.”
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