Vermont sued by ACLU over ‘illegal’ opioid report changes

(The Center Square) — Vermont is facing a lawsuit alleging the state's top health official illegally altered a report detailing how to spend tens of millions of dollars from settlements with opioid manufacturers.

The lawsuit , filed by the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, seeks records from the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee that the group claims were "wrongfully withheld" by the Vermont Department of Health and challenges the Scott administration’s "behind-closed-doors alteration" of the panel’s recommendations to the state Legislature.

The ACLU said the records "could shed light on political interference by the Scott administration to undermine the legislature’s response to Vermont’s opioid epidemic." That includes the panel's recommendations about setting up supervised "safe injection" sites for intravenous drug use to prevent fatal opioid overdoses, the group said.

"Policymaking should not happen behind closed doors, and that is especially true when the policies in question have life and death consequences," Harrison Stark, the ACLU of Vermont's senior staff attorney, said in a statement.

"By playing politics and violating both the Vermont Open Meeting Law and the Vermont Public Records Act, the Scott administration not only threatened Vermonters’ access to life-saving overdose prevention centers — it also eroded trust between government officials and the people it is supposed to represent," Stark said.

Gov. Phil Scott has pushed back against previous claims by the civil liberties group that state Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine violated state law when he amended the opioid report recommendations.

"State law was clearly followed, proper professional discretion was used, and the change to the committee recommendations, which were discussed in public session in accordance with the open meeting law, was transparently disclosed," Scott, a Republican, said in a February statement.

However, the ACLU claims that Levine went "beyond the boundaries of his role" by making an alternative recommendation for the use of $2.6 million in settlement funds that the committee had initially recommended be earmarked for establishing two overdose prevention centers.

"If the Scott administration opposed this life-saving harm reduction strategy, it should have had that debate in the light of day," Lia Ernst, the ACLU of Vermont's legal director, said in a statement. "Claiming ‘executive privilege’ as a means of avoiding accountability is out of step with Vermont values, and it denies Vermonters their right to transparent and responsive government."

Vermont has been debating safe injection sites for several years amid record-high numbers of opioid-related overdose deaths.

Supporters of the move say state-sanctioned injection facilities, albeit controversial, would save lives. They say it would also expose people with an addiction to a range of detox and treatment options.

Critics say the debate over injection sites is skewed by misinformation, misleading studies and arguments from supporters who say the programs are a panacea.

In 2022, Scott vetoed a bill that would have created safe injection sites, citing concerns it would divert money away from harm reduction strategies to injection sites "without clear data on the effectiveness of this approach."