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Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the different label. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. On this edition, we talk about drugs and the opioid epidemic. With us to discuss this important topic is Monica Hutt, Chief Officer of, excuse me, what is your title? It's a fun title. I'm the Chief Prevention Officer for the State of Vermont. And Governor Scott's office. Welcome to Ableton on Air. Thank you so much. Thank you. What are the missions and goals of your office? And I know it's just, from reading a little bit, it's just you. It's just me. What are the missions and goals of your office? So the Chief Prevention Officer position was created by the legislature several years ago and was filled, the governor elected to fill it almost three years ago. I've been doing this for almost three years. And the original intent of the position, it was born out of work that we had done across the state on opioids and on the opioid epidemic. So the idea was that there would be somebody in state government that could help to kind of leverage and connect across state government, really looking at prevention. So trying to get upstream of the issue around opioids. But the way that the position was actually written, it's much bigger than substances. So it's substance use, it's suicide prevention, it's looking at chronic health conditions, housing, homelessness, older Vermonters, individuals with disabilities. Including also after school mentoring. Yes, absolutely. With drugs and health needs and mental health. Exactly. All those things, thinking about how do you get upstream in all the work that we're doing in state government? How do we connect and coordinate and leverage all that good work and try to make sure that it's happening in a way that actually achieves outcomes and impacts in the community? So it's kind of like a dream job if you've been doing this for a long time. And I've been in state government for 18 years. So this is perfect in terms of really being able to reach out across different departments and divisions and help them to connect the work that they're doing to support Vermonters. Now how big is the opioid epidemic? Because we're talking, it's not just, you know, the big problem is, you know, even if you go into a pharmacy, you have to sign for your prescriptions. If there's an opioid and there are things like Oxycontin, Oxycodone and other problematic drugs. Yeah. Go ahead. You know, it's interesting. I think it's a really great point, Lawrence, because obviously the opioid epidemic is a huge issue in Vermont. It's a huge issue nationally. I mean, we're certainly not the only state. Every state is struggling. And I think we saw a lot of things really in fact get worse after the pandemic when people had been so isolated for so long. But you're absolutely right that the real big issues started with opioids, which are just essentially painkillers, prescribed painkillers. And it created a level of addiction of substance use disorder across the country that I think was very unanticipated, right? The ability to get addicted to opioids if they're misprescribed or if you are misusing them in some way is pretty high. As a matter of fact, recently I went to Walgreens, I've been to Walmart and because of the opioid epidemic, they're locking up in plastic containers on the shelves, tying it all and other over-the-counter stuff. And then if you want it, you've got to go and ask them for a key and they have to give it to you. Really? I hadn't seen that. A lot of stores are doing that now. So even those over-the-counter medications? Yeah, because, yeah. Why is it really big? Is it because people are just using it to get high? Well, you have to go back into the science of substance use disorder, right? Which is an illness, like any other illness. It's not unlike having diabetes or any other chronic health condition. Not everybody that uses opioids becomes addicted. But for the people that do, it really changes their body chemistry, their brain chemistry. And it becomes like an illness, something that you have to address in a chronic way. And something that you have to treat with compassion and care and a lot of attention to the medical components of it. So why is substance use disorder a big issue? And again, remember that that includes substances beyond opioids, right? You can have substance use disorder and be struggling with alcohol. You can be struggling with tobacco. You can be struggling with cocaine. You can be struggling in a substance use disorder with cannabis. The issues around addiction are really complicated, right? Yeah, because according to an article from Global Public Health, as of January 2023, one in four adults has a disability and one in 12 adults have addiction to alcohol or drugs. And I know there's budget cuts going on and programs are being cut. I mean, we need programs like the Methadone Clinic. We need alcoholics anonymous. Has Vermont seen, I know there's not one here, but has Vermont seen cuts in those programs? No, no, we've been really fortunate in that we're not cutting any of the substance use programs that are out there right now. I think that there's been continued investment, which is huge, so there's more money going into them. I think the other point that you bring up, though, is the point around adults or individuals with disabilities, right? It's a socioeconomic thing, though. Yeah, it absolutely is. There are a lot of risk factors for any adult human that lead or young adult that lead down the path of substance use disorder. But those risk factors for individuals with disabilities are even higher because they're based on... Also... I think that there are life situations that create an environment that might lead you down that path a little bit more readily. So if you're struggling with your economics, struggling with your housing, struggling with health conditions, chronic pain, you know, we know that a lot of adults with disabilities are struggling with some issues around chronic pain. So depending on how their doctor manages that, depending on how they manage that, there's a higher risk for addiction. Yeah, you said it's higher with those versus without disabilities, but they enter treatment at a much lower rate. I can't tell you why that is. I thought that was really fascinating as well, so I'm glad that you picked up on that. Yeah, we definitely know that the rates of addiction tend to be higher for individuals with disabilities, but that they're entering treatment at a lower rate. That might be because of the stigma of having an addiction or having substance use disorder. That might be just the lack of awareness. It might be that we don't have treatment programs that are tailored in the right way for individuals with disabilities. I also think we don't have good data. Is it because of the way people learn at these programs? That's possible. I don't know. I think it's a really interesting question. And we don't have good data. So it may be that people with disabilities are entering those treatment programs, but we're not tracking it that way. So we don't have good data around that, which I think is one of the issues that, as I was thinking about coming to talk with you today and preparing for this, it's really clear that the data is just not disaggregated in a way that we can talk about disability conclusively and how it's impacted, how it's touched, how it touches substance use disorder. So it's a really important point. Fentanyl. Recently, about, I would say about three to four weeks ago, because I'm originally from New York, in the Bronx there was an issue where a one-year-old child got his hands on fentanyl and died in a daycare center. Fentanyl has increased, and there's things like Narcan and other situations that reverse drugs. Why is fentanyl a big issue? Fentanyl is a big issue because what's happening is that the... It's a cancer drug. I didn't actually even know that. It's a cancer drug. So fentanyl is being added to opioids, to heroin. Sometimes it's more fentanyl than it is heroin when you're buying street drugs. The issue is that your supply, you never know where it's coming from and you don't know what's in it. So fentanyl is one of those substances that's being added to the drugs that people are purchasing or getting on the street. And it intensifies the effect of the opioid, but it also is a little bit more resistant to what we use like Narcan when you just talked about that, to overdose reversal. It doesn't react the same way that pure heroin would. Fentanyl is also used, if used properly, similar to morphine because it helps. If someone's in real pain, it helps. And it should only be given by a doctor. But then people are just eating it like candy. Like I said, it's definitely being added to the drug supply. And just like opioids, fentanyl started in is a controlled substance that should be used, like you said, with a medical professional or by a medical professional, in a closely monitored situation. There are other substances. How does Narcan work? I can't tell you the technical or the clinical use, but essentially what Narcan does, and it's safe to use, which is a really important component of it, it reverses the overdose. It brings somebody back out of that overdose. So when you're overdosing, your heart rate is decreasing, your breathing is decreasing or lowering. So Narcan actually kind of restarts all of that at a normal level and brings you out of the high of the drug and out of the overdose potentially. So it's a great thing. And it's something that is easy and safe to administer really anybody can. And that's a big part of the push right now in Vermont is to make sure that people are really comfortable, can get hold of Narcan, know how to use it to reverse overdoses. The one thing I did want to say though is that we are also seeing other substances added to heroin on the street, right? So not only fentanyl, but we're seeing xylazine and gabapentin, which are both medications. Those are things I've never heard of. Yes, they are. They are veterinary drugs. For pets. For pets. Yep. In fact, my dog is on gabapentin right now because he just had a recent surgery. So it's a pain reliever that my pup is using. Xylazine as well is a veterinary drug. And those have even more kind of impact on humans when they are taken. Xylazine creates open wounds on people's skin. So there's a really, not only is it used to enhance the high, but it has these negative effects as well. So it's really, it's pretty awful. Yeah, it's like, so I guess I don't want to say this, but people will do anything for a high. But in terms of how has the media dealt? Because years ago, you know, drug epidemic, we're going way back, 70s and 80s. How has, or even further than that, you know, would stock for that matter. How has the media, what has media portrayed drugs in a bad light and then now education is coming, more education in the state of Vermont is coming to the forefront. Yeah. How has the media helped or hindered drug abuse? I think that's really such a great question. And I don't know that I have a great answer for it. In Europe? Yeah. Let me just back up a little bit because you said, you know, people will do anything for a high. Is that a bad way? Well, I think it, I think that that's actually part of the challenge around this conversation, right? Because I think it's not, it is true that people are, you know, risk takers and thrill seekers. And so there are some folks. It's like, you take drugs and you end up on a rollercoaster that you don't want to be on. Right. There's also a line that you cross, right? When you become addicted, when you really end up with substance use disorder, right? This illness that we talked about at the beginning, you've sort of crossed the line and you're not so much chasing the high as you are chasing the, without the drugs, just like a medication, your body starts to feel bad, right? You can go into withdrawal. Once you're struggling with substance use addicted, the drugs that you're using are part of kind of self sustaining yourself so that you feel healthy, so that you feel good. Explain what a withdrawal is for those that don't know. So when you are addicted, when your body has become used to drugs at a certain level, the chemistry in your brain, the neurons in your brain, the transistors and transmitters and receivers in your brain are changed. And if you don't have that drug or that medication, essentially, you can experience physical pain. You can experience nausea and vomiting, headaches. You know, it's a pretty horrible physical experience. And that's why when folks are getting into treatment, they go through some pretty challenging times to get to the point where all those drugs are out of their system and they really need to be supported through that. One of the big pushes in Vermont is to use medication-assisted treatment, MAT, which is actually now called Medicaid for Opiate Use Disorders. So there are medications. Medication? Medication. Sorry, I said it wrong. He said medication for opiate use disorders, M-O-U-D. And those are medications, methadone and suboxone or buprenorphine that are used to help titrate somebody down off of the drugs that they're using. They are drugs still, but at a much lower level that don't give you the euphoric high but help your body not to feel terrible so that you can get through it. Because again, it's an illness. It's like it's a physical... Yeah, because I remember when my father was an alcoholic, he would go through these sugar highs because if my mother took away the bottle, he would find a way to eat sugar of some sort, candy bar or something just to get that high. The effect of that, yeah. Yeah. And then he would wake up with these horrible hangovers. Yeah. You know. Right. And I'm so glad that you brought up alcohol because we talk about opioids a lot, but alcohol is a huge issue in the state of Vermont for folks with disabilities and for folks without disabilities. Explain how? Explain. How? How? You know, it's... I know it's open-ended. Yeah, it's open-ended. It's probably the biggest issue for an addiction services for any state still, but we don't talk about alcohol as much because it's socialized, because it's legal, you know. So I think, again, it's all about, you know, when you think about alcohol and responsible use, you're thinking about how do you use it to enhance your life but not take over your life? Since you say alcohol, well, I don't know if your office is in charge of this, what is the legal drinking age in the state of Vermont? And, you know, people get around it. Oh, you know, they have a drink at a party, so on. But it has the legal drinking age. Does that go through your office or do certain regulatory things go through your office? No, no, no, no. Those are laws, right? So those are legislative laws. The drinking age in Vermont is 21. That's the law here in the state of Vermont. I don't know if there are huge variations across the country anymore. It's pretty solidly 21 in most states in the country. Yeah. So your office doesn't regulate, so it doesn't regulate things with alcohol? Well, I mean, you deal with education. Yep, and certainly alcohol is one of the things that we talk about when we're talking about prevention. But Vermont also has the Department of Liquor and Lottery. Most of the laws for alcohol consumption come through the Department of Liquor and Lottery. But again, they're laws, right? They've gone through the governor and through the legislature and are signed into law, so they become kind of bigger than any state. No, in terms of drugs, we're going to go back to the heroin situation. Right. Recently, WCAX mentioned a situation in Burlington where a certain church had to get rid of homeless people off their stoop because there was drug needles all over, you know, all over the place in different situations. How does Vermont have a clean needle program? Surrender service programs, yep, we have them. Exactly. How does that work within your office? So how does your office educate people with that? I know that's a sometimes horrible thing to talk about, but I mean, if you're going to try to get off it or, you know, because when you pass a drug needle, I know way back, you know, and as a matter of fact, December 1st was World's AIDS Day, but, you know, if you're going to give somebody a clean needle, you might as well give them a clean needle. They didn't have past the dirty needle. Right. But how has that, what are some of the things your office is doing with those things with educating people? So again, all of that work actually happens through the Department of Health. So the Department of Health has a division within it called the Division of Substance Use Programs, and that's where all of the work with our syringe service programs happen. The work around, you know, setting up new clinics for methadone or buprenorphine. All of our treatment and support services happen in the Department of Health in the Division of Substance Use Programs. Okay. Let's talk about tobacco and, let's go back up. Let's talk about tobacco and youth risk behavior situations. Yeah. So when we were thinking about, again, when we were talking about the show, we were trying to figure out, you know, what are the statistics? What's the data for individuals with disabilities in terms of substance use? And as I said a little bit earlier, there's not great data. We don't break the data down in that way as much as we probably should and could really target good programs, good interventions towards that population. But there are a couple of places that I found a little bit of data. So the behavioral risk, the behavioral risk factor surveillance system, which we for short call the BREFIS, is a survey that Vermont uses. It's actually used nationally, but Vermont uses it to talk with adults to kind of survey them about what risks they're taking, what risky behaviors they are engaging in so that we have a better sense of it. And that just looked back at the last two. There was one in 2018 and then another one in 2020 that the BREFIS was conducted. And when we looked at the risk factors and risky behaviors for Vermonters, what we saw for... The R-Y-B-S is a snowman. Nope, this is the BRFSS, the BREFIS for adults. Sorry. We're going to talk about the Y-R-B-S in a minute though. So hold on to that question. So the BREFIS in 2018 and 2020 showed that people in the disability community, in particular, individual with disabilities are less likely to drink. So lower use, lower risk of use of alcohol, higher risk for use of cannabis, marijuana. We'll get to that in a minute. Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute. And then about the same use as adults without disabilities or the same level of misuse of prescription medications. So when you're thinking about the disability community and the community of individuals without disabilities, higher risk for individuals with disabilities in alcohol, about the same risk in misusing prescription medications, which is good. Higher usage of cannabis. And the 2018 BREFIS also showed a slightly elevated use of tobacco. Again, for individuals with disabilities, we're talking about if we're going to target interventions, we need to look at alcohol, we need to look at tobacco. We might need to talk about how people are using cannabis. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the Y-R-B-S, that's done in middle school and high school. And again, doesn't break down by disability really well, but essentially all of the risk factors that we would look at for kids are higher for youth with disability, for substance use in particular. So we know that there are greater risk than their peers in middle school and high school for substance use disorder. Okay, let's talk a little bit about, I don't know if it's not on your head, marijuana and the difference between, you know, people using it for medical purposes and have medical cards, you're on the cannabis board. Because what is the definition of medical marijuana, but how is it being regulated through situations with your office? Right, right. So I'm not actually on the cannabis control board, but we do have a cannabis control board in Vermont. So three people that were appointed by the governor, but it's a board that works independently of the governor's office. I am the liaison to the cannabis control board. So in the governor's office, if they need kind of a point person to talk to, they can check in with me. But they operate completely independently. There are three people on that board. They really were set up in Vermont law, in statute, to create the retail market for cannabis in the state of Vermont. So cannabis became legal in the state of Vermont several years ago. It's born in New York because now in New York it's following. Yes, before New York. Following a couple of other states in the country as well, I think that, you know, Colorado was certainly ahead of us. I know that I think maybe New Hampshire was a little bit ahead of us, but Vermont elected to make cannabis legal still the age is 21. So that's important. It's the same as with alcohol. But adults, so for adult use is what they call it. It's for adult use and it's legal. And the cannabis control board does all of the regulating around getting a license to grow it, getting a license to distribute it, getting a license to sell it. Yep, there are retail licenses. So all the stores that you see that might sell cannabis have to get a license through the cannabis control board. They're called dispensaries, if I'm not... Some are called dispensaries. I'm not sure if they all still use that word. They came from the medical marijuana movement to start with. But yes, some are still called dispensaries. They can name themselves however they want. But those retail establishments are selling adult use cannabis. When you talk about medical cannabis and carrying a medical card... What's the difference? The difference is that with a medical card, you can purchase higher potency cannabis. The THC content is a little bit higher because you're using it to alleviate medical conditions. So for people that don't know... So the THC causes the high. It's the psychoactive component in cannabis. What if you go to... Because I've been to plenty of supermarkets and stores and they sell CBD sodas and juices. What exactly is CBD? So we can understand this a little bit more. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember what it actually stands for. So hemp, cannabis, CBD all come from the exact same plant. The difference is that the level of THC, the level of psychoactive component in the substance. So CBD should not have any psychoactive component. It should not be able to get you high at all. The THC level I think has to be below 0.3. So it's a substance that's derived from the hemp or the marijuana plant, but it doesn't have a psychoactive component. Yeah, CBD is derived... Does it tell you what it stands for? CBD, those that don't know, derives from the hemp or non-hemp plants. Hemp is defined as many parts of the cannabis that are sativa plant. No more than 0.3% of the CBD is used in the United States. And then it goes on from there. Yeah, so it's all the same plant. It's just whether or not it has THC as a psychoactive component. And hemp growing... One specific part of CBD is approved by the U.S. So the FDA has been approved for seizures. So a lot of people... The use of CBD? CBD, the gummies, the gummy candies and eatables. And who did say approved it? Because I didn't think that the federal government had done that, but maybe they have. It's right here. It's right here. Yeah, give me a second. I just have to sort. Yeah, it's called a cannabinole... Cannabinole... C-A-N-N-A-B-I-D-I-O-L. Cannabinole. Yeah. There you go. Okay, so those who don't know, CBD is a chemical of the cannabis, sativa plant known as the cannabis or hemp. One specific form of CBD is approved as a drug in the U.S. for seizures. Cool. So... Good to know. Over 80 chemicals known as cannabinoids can be found in the cannabis sativa plant Delta 9. I can't pronounce T-H-C is the most famous ingredient in cannabis, but CBD is obtained from hemp in the form of cannabis sativa plant that only contains small amounts of T-H-C. CBD can seem to have effects on some chemicals in the brain and those different than the effects of T-H-C. A prescription form of CBD is used for seizures, disorder, epilepsy, and CBD is also used for anxiety, pain, muscle disorder, which is called dystonia. It's a type of pausing. Parkinson's disease, Crohn's disease, and many others. Yeah. So there's a hope. And if you want to find out more information on that, you can go to WebMD.com. So again, important to know that CBD doesn't have any psychoactive components. There's no high associated with it. And I would always say, you know, it's always a decision that you should be making with your doctor, right? Just because. Yeah. What haven't we touched on? That's extremely good. What haven't we touched on? Oh my God, we've talked about so much. So we talked a little bit about the opioid epidemic. We talked about other substances. You know, the one thing that I wanted to mention, because I do think it's really important is, like I said, I kept bumping into the fact that there's not great data or the data doesn't get separated out in a way that we can really speak to the impact on individuals with disabilities. And Vermont did create several years ago the Health Equity Advisory Commission. And that Health Equity Advisory Commission is designed to help Vermont to really address the differences in health, in health outcomes for people with disabilities, people who are black, indigenous, or people of color, and individuals in the LGBTQ plus community. So really recognizing that those are populations that have health outcomes that are not as good as the rest of Vermont. And so we want to be able to address those health disparities, those poor outcomes. And one of the roles of the Health Equity Advisory Commission, the HEAC, is to really look at how do we do better with our data. And I know you're talking about preventative measures. I know you really can't talk about methadone, but I know we have a methadone clinic. We have multiple methadone clinics across the state of Vermont. How long has methadone been a part of helping Vermonters deal with stuff? It's a great question. I don't know how long it goes back. I think the clinics have been operating for years now at this point in time. And there are clinics that work with methadone. In Vermont, we call it a hub and spoke system. So those hubs... What does that mean? Hubs are more intensive medically focused places where methadone can be prescribed, because methadone needs a lot more medical oversight and monitoring. And then our spokes are doctors or primary care practices or practices that can support somebody once they've started on their treatment and can prescribe things like buprenorphine more readily. So it really is trying to create places where somebody can go to get started on their treatment and then places that are closer to home where they can continue that treatment. That's what the hub and spoke about. Going back to the deaths, which is important. We really have to really deal with drug education so we can prevent more deaths. Nationally in every state in the country, there's been major issues around opioids. Just in 2023 alone, there's been over 164 deaths due to overdose. Through August of 2023, with an average of over the last three years of 132 deaths over the same time period. I mean, how can we prevent drug deaths more by more education? I mean, I think it's a multi-prong approach, right? So when the governor talks about this, he has four buckets that he talks about. He talks about prevention, which we're talking about a little bit right now and is a role that I feel that I am pretty solidly in the middle of. Prevention, treatment. So we talked about medication-assisted treatment or MOUD. We haven't really talked about recovery, but recovery is another leg of the stool, the third place. And then we've also talked about enforcement, right? So what are we doing to make sure that drugs aren't coming into the state, aren't getting sold, aren't getting distributed? And I think you have to have efforts in all four... What we're having is Vermont having... What's the word? So in order for a drug not to go into a state, do you have to have border patrols or how does that work? So again, those four different buckets, you have to have efforts in each of those buckets. And enforcement is certainly one of those buckets. And I think it really has to do more with what are our laws? What are the responses to people that are trafficking drugs? Like what's happening with them in the legal system? How are we making it uncomfortable to operate here in Vermont and distribute drugs? And that's a whole body of work. And it's not my area of expertise, but it's a leg of the stool. Like think about a stool with four different legs. It's one of those four legs that we need to focus on. Prevention though, trying to keep that away, trying to avoid people starting drug use and so therefore not becoming addicted, not struggling with substance use disorder. I think that there's work that we do. We can do in schools with young people. How so? What are some of the programs that you're doing in schools? Yeah, so it's a great question. So Vermont schools have individuals that are called substance abuse professionals. So SAPs in schools. Those are individuals that a school district hire to work with kids directly in schools. They might run educational programs. They might just be connecting with kids. Their days are really varied. You know, anything from working with a kid and working with the family to reduce the risk factors, to connect them with services and supports, to educate when something's going on. That's certainly one component. We've also got prevention coalitions in almost every community in the state of Vermont and those coalitions, those prevention coalitions work across substances. So from tobacco to cannabis to opioids to cocaine to alcohol. Explain how that works. Those coalitions are embedded in communities and so they work with local schools. They work with local governments. They might work with the library. They might work with college if there happens to be a college in the town. But they figure out what the community needs, what programs need to be brought in and then they do the work to bring those programs in. They offer opportunities and places for kids to meet up and hang out. Whatever is necessary. But they also are trying to expand their focus so that they're not only focused on kids but they're talking to adults. They're talking to pregnant women. They're talking to adults in the community. Really trying to make sure that they are talking across every age, across every substance and bringing whatever prevention resources are necessary. What prevention resources are available through your office dealing with? Because when a pregnant woman takes drugs, you're going to have a problem. So again, we're going right back to the health department because I'm just a single person at a desk, not really an office. But I'm able to work, lucky and honored and privileged to work with the Department of Health and all the great work that they do. So there are 12 public health offices across the state of Vermont and every one of those public health offices has a prevention specialist that sits in the office. So again, they work within state government in the same way that I just talked about with the prevention coalitions that are not state government folks but are just local folks that are working together that are funded through the Department of Health. So we've got these local efforts that kind of start with state and then filter into communities. That's the goal. Before we end, let's see, we've talked about drug education. Before we end, what is the future of more drug education in Vermont and how are we going to prevent, you know, especially around people with special needs? Yeah, it's such an important question. Like I said, the local prevention coalitions are something that just recently we were able to fund a little bit more substantially. So that's really good. Interestingly enough, money from the cannabis excise tax. So the sale of adult use cannabis, the sales tax money goes to after school programming for kids. The excise tax, which is a tax on top of the sales tax, 30% of that is dedicated to prevention efforts. So we're beginning to use those funds to really beef up prevention across the whole state, which is great. What do you mean, beef up prevention? Those coalitions that I talked about, making sure that we're funding them more robustly, making sure that they can work with schools, that they're working with communities. There hasn't been a dedicated funding source for them before, so they were kind of catch as catch can. Now they're really stabilizing because there's money and resources that will be available to them. Anything we didn't cover? I feel like we talked about a lot. Certainly would be remiss if I didn't talk to people about Vermont HelpLink. Yes. V-T-H-E-L-P-L-I-N-K dot org, which is the place to go. It's supported through the Department of Health. If you have questions, need information, support, referrals. If you are struggling with substance use disorder or someone that you know and love is struggling with substance use disorder, go to VermontHelpLink.org for information and to be connected to supports and services for you. All right. What exactly is Vermont HelpLink? So that's a website that basically gives people resources. Yes, but it also can connect you to real life people to talk through whatever you need. So it's the one-stop shop if you want information. The counseling hub, pretty much. It can be. It can offer that. It can offer information just online. You know, you can get to a real person if you want to, but it can also just be something that you read through in the privacy of your own space if you want to do that. So it's just a good hub for all that information. Okay. Well, we would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Unable Den On Air. For more information on resources and information and support, if you have a substance abuse, if you have substance use abuse or a disorder, you can go to www. Let's try that again. Three, two, one. If you have problems with drug abuse or need support or referrals or substance abuse problems and you have a disorder, you can go to www.vthelplink.org. That website, once again, is www.vthelplink.org. This puts an end to this edition of Unable Den On Air. We would like to thank our partners, the Division for the Blind in Vermont, the Association for the Blind in Vermont, and today's partner, Monica Hut from Governor Scott's office. We would like to thank you for joining again on this edition of Unable Den On Air. I'm Lauren Seiler. Please be careful when using drugs, and if you can, get help. I'm Lauren Seiler. See you next time. Major sponsors for Unable Den On Air include Washington County Metal Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Unable Den On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisthebronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Unable Den On Air include Yehad of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Center for Vermont Habitat for Humanity, Montefere Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Abledon On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, www.thisisthebronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, www.h.com, and the Montefere Bridge. 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