An act relating to funding support services for persons who use drugs and eliminating misdemeanor criminal penalties for possessing or dispensing a personal use drug supply
S.120 would substantially shift Vermont’s drug policy from a criminal-penalty model toward a public-health and harm-reduction model. The bill creates a Drug Use Health and Safety Advisory Board to recommend “benchmark personal use supply” quantities for regulated drugs and directs the Department of Health to adopt those benchmarks by rule. For possession or dispensing at or below those benchmark amounts, the bill removes criminal and civil penalties and instead requires that the person be offered health needs screening and information about local harm-reduction services. It also authorizes a $50 gift card for completing the screening.
The bill also establishes two new special funds: a Substance Use Prevention Special Fund and a Community Care, Health, and Safety Special Fund. These funds would be financed primarily by reallocating cannabis excise tax revenue and a portion of opioid abatement monies, and would support community care resource centers, low-barrier treatment, peer support, overdose prevention services, drug checking, mobile outreach, transportation, and related services. The bill amends multiple sections of Title 18 to exempt benchmark personal-use quantities from penalties for cocaine, LSD, heroin, fentanyl, xylazine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, buprenorphine, and other depressant, stimulant, and narcotic drugs, while retaining and in some cases preserving higher penalties for larger quantities and trafficking-related conduct.
If enacted, the bill would amend Vermont’s controlled substances laws in Title 18 and related funding provisions in Title 32 to decriminalize possession and dispensing of benchmark personal-use quantities of regulated drugs, while leaving higher-level possession, sale, and trafficking penalties in place. It would also create a new administrative framework for setting drug-specific benchmark quantities, require health screening referrals in lieu of punishment, and redirect cannabis tax and opioid settlement resources into new prevention and community-care funding streams. The bill would affect law enforcement, courts, public health agencies, harm-reduction providers, and people who use drugs, and would require new rulemaking, reporting, and grant administration by the Department of Health and the Secretary of Administration.
The bill’s findings and structure reflect a strongly supportive, public-health-oriented approach to drug policy, emphasizing overdose prevention, harm reduction, and reduced criminalization. The introduced text frames criminal penalties as ineffective and harmful, and the absence of committee transcripts or recorded votes means there is no documented legislative debate in the provided materials. Based on the bill language alone, the measure appears designed to advance a major policy shift rather than a narrow technical adjustment.
The main points of contention likely concern whether Vermont should eliminate misdemeanor penalties for personal-use possession and dispensing of regulated drugs, and whether that change could reduce deterrence or complicate enforcement. Another likely issue is the bill’s reliance on cannabis excise tax revenue and opioid abatement funds to finance new programs, including the transfer of 15 percent of opioid abatement monies and 40 percent of cannabis excise tax revenue to the new Community Care, Health, and Safety Special Fund. Supporters are likely to emphasize reduced overdose risk, reduced stigma, and expanded access to services, while critics may focus on public safety, implementation complexity, and the policy implications of decriminalizing possession and dispensing of benchmark quantities.