Around New England

Drug Overdose Deaths Caused By Stimulus Checks In Vermont and New Hampshire

June 25, 2020

In Vermont and New Hampshire, people used their stimulus checks on drugs. Some of them died.

That’s what Cynthia Seivwright, director of the Vermont Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program told The Concord Monitor.

“Getting those checks is a trigger for people,” she said.

Seivwright said giving people that money on top of the coronavirus shutdown resulted in some additional deaths.

In April 2020, Vermont had 17 fatal drug overdose deaths after only having eight in the same month last year. Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, there were 42 overdose deaths in April and 45 in May. That’s an increase over the 32 in April 2019 and 35 in May 2019, according to the report.