Bill aims to save lives during overdose

Virginia could become first in U.S. to recognize climate positivity in purchased goods

Dels. Betsy Carr and Christopher Peace: Addressing childhood adversity now will deliver a brighter future

The following op-ed, by Delegates Betsy Carr and Christopher Peace appeared in the Sunday, January 7th edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch. 

When the General Assembly convenes on Jan. 10, we and our colleagues face a number of urgent needs affecting families, including keeping up with increasing demands in K-12 education, curbing the growing opioid crisis, and transforming the behavioral health system to ensure children and adults can get the right treatment at the right time.

What if we could get ahead of some of the issues confronting Virginia’s families? What if we could find a way to prevent some of the human suffering and resulting public expenditures due to academic failure, domestic abuse, substance use, and chronic health problems?

Research on the developing brain is providing some answers, and as lawmakers, we need to pay attention. Science shows that exposure to adverse childhood experiences, known as ACEs, can change how the brain works.

Examples of ACEs include having a parent who has a substance-use disorder, witnessing community violence, or being sexually abused. When children feel threatened by what has happened to them, they experience trauma. Children from all types of families in every community can experience trauma, but the negative impact of traumatic experiences are limited in an otherwise supportive environment.

For some children, the adverse childhood experiences accumulate, and the effect on the brain is overwhelming.

Children who experience multiple, repeated traumas live in a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze. All of us have this same bodily reaction when we are in extremely stressful situations: stress hormones flood our bodies and minds, and automatically the most primitive parts of our brains, designed to keep us alive, are activated.

When in survival mode, we are unable to use the more evolved parts our brains that can make rational decisions and plan ahead.

The brains of children who live in environments with ongoing trauma, known as toxic stress, stay in this heightened state of alert. As a result, these children may not be able to focus in school, may act out in inappropriate ways, or may withdraw emotionally from friends and family.

The long-term mental and physical health consequences of toxic stress can be devastating: As adults, people who have experienced three or more adverse experiences in childhood are four times more likely to report having poor health, seven times more likely to be an alcoholic, and 12 times more likely to die by suicide.

The good news is that ACEs do not have to dictate a child’s future. With appropriate interventions, brains can change and children can be resilient.

That’s where we come in as policymakers. We need to ensure that our public investments support parents, communities, and institutions that prevent childhood trauma whenever possible and promote resilience.

***

Investments on the front end of childhood, such as ensuring that children’s basic needs are met — and helping parents understand their children’s develop ment and how to prepare them for school — can save later expenditures in terms of academic remediation, incarceration, or health care expenditures for chronic, preventable illnesses.

Wise investments in young children and their parents can help produce the next generation of adult Virginians who are able to learn, work, and support their families.

Being good stewards of public resources is something both sides of the aisle can agree on. We recommend that the General Assembly and Gov.-elect Ralph Northam work together to take specific steps toward reducing childhood trauma and promoting resilience:

Continue the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, a collaboration at the highest levels of state government designed to solve complex problems affecting children. Gov. Terry McAuliffe was the first to create the Children’s Cabinet, which includes the heads of state agencies overseeing schools, health, public safety, and social services, among others.
As part of the Children’s Cabinet, establish a work group composed of public and private partners to evaluate Virginia’s policies and practices that address ACEs and promote resiliency.
Develop a framework to implement trauma-informed policy and practice across Virginia, based on research and successful models from other states.
Fund innovative practices and solutions conceived by those working directly with children experiencing toxic stress and their families. Virginia already has several community-based networks of professionals from education, health, law, and other fields who collaborate to learn more about the effects of trauma.
When science, savings, and opportunity align, it is time to act. We look forward to working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and with the new administration to make policy changes that will serve our commonwealth’s children better and lead to cost savings today and economic opportunity for future generations.

Betsy Carr, a Democrat, represents the 69th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. Contact her at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org.

Christoper Peace, a Republican, represents the 97th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. Contact him at DelCPeace@house.Virginia.gov.

Del. Betsy Carr, Democratic incumbent, faces third-party challengers in Richmond House race

• By MARK ROBINSON Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 17, 2017

An incumbent Richmond Democrat representing a swath of the city and part of Chesterfield County is seeking to fend off two third-party challengers in the 69th District House of Delegates race.

Challenging Del. Betsy B. Carr in the Nov. 7 contest are Libertarian Jake Crocker and Green Party nominee Montigue Magruder.

The district covers most of South Richmond and a portion of the city north of the James River that includes Carytown, Oregon Hill and part of the Fan District, as well as a sliver of Chesterfield. It is a Democratic stronghold: In each state and national contest since 2012, more than four out of five voters in the district have cast their ballots for a Democrat.

Carr, 71, who served on the Richmond School Board from 2006 to 2009, has not faced a Republican challenger since winning the House seat in 2009. She said she is seeking a fourth term in the legislature to continue working for the district’s constituents.

Asked what she offered voters that her opponents do not, Carr touted her experience working in the Republican-dominated House and the relationships she has built outside of her party to advance bills she has proposed.

As an example, Carr pointed to a measure she carried in 2015 to combat the state’s opioid epidemic, which sought to extend amnesty from prosecution to individuals who report a drug or alcohol overdose. Termed the “Good Samaritan” bill, it cleared a Republican-controlled committee before receiving approval from the full House and Senate and becoming law.

“You don’t get anything done without relationships,” Carr said. “There’s a number of things (Democrats and Republicans) can work together on, so we work on those and we work little by little to make headway into the things that are more difficult.”

If re-elected, she said her priorities in the district include creating well-paying jobs, improving public schools and restoring voting rights for people convicted of felonies.

Crocker, 43, is a marketing consultant who co-owns three restaurants in the city: F.W. Sullivan’s Fan Bar and Grille, Lady N’awlins Cajun Cafe and Uptown Market and Deli.

The Libertarian candidate has never held or run for public office, but has served in leadership roles on the Fan Area Business Alliance and the Uptown Civic Association.

Frustration he feels as a restaurant owner in the city propelled him to pursue the office, he said.

“The bureaucratic barriers continuously are shoved down the throats of these small-business owners while the state and the city are then taking the tax money. ... That’s pretty much why I’m running,” Crocker said.

If elected, he said he would advocate for reforming the state’s alcoholic beverage control guidelines and lowering the city’s meals tax. The latter falls under the city’s purview, but he believes state lawmakers should step in and address it, he said. In general, he thinks local and state government should make it easier for entrepreneurs to do business.

Magruder, 30, is a part-time scooter mechanic and part-time fry cook at the Grab-N-Go Convenience Store on Jefferson Davis Highway. The Charlottesville native is an Armstrong High School alumnus and resident of the Swansboro neighborhood of South Richmond.

For two years, Magruder served on the Greater Richmond Transit Company and Transit Study Task Force, which in 2013 rendered 11 recommendations to the Richmond City Council on how the region could improve its public transit system.

Magruder has never held public office, but last year ran for City Council in the 5th District, finishing third with 13 percent of the vote. The council run led him to this race, he said.

“A lot of people felt the issues I wanted to address while running for City Council actually required state intervention because of what I was trying to do and (they) felt I should have run for an office there,” Magruder said.

Those issues include decriminalizing marijuana, rejiggering the state’s funding formula for public education, banning fracking and increasing the state’s minimum wage to $26.80 per hour, a wage he said would more fairly compensate workers given the rise in cost of living and employee productivity since the late ’60s.

Carr raised about $90,500 through September, according to campaign finance reports due Monday and made available through the Virginia Public Access Project. Her largest donor is Carole Weinstein. The local philanthropist and wife of real estate magnate Marcus Weinstein has donated $10,000 to Carr’s current re-election campaign and $140,000 to the delegate’s campaigns since 2009, campaign finance records show.

Magruder has reported raising about $1,600, $500 of which came from his largest donor, the Green Party of the United States. Crocker said he has raised about $550 online in small donations, but does not have a campaign committee registered with the State Board of Elections.

Meeting with Young Democrats, Jennifer McClellan and Ralph Northam

Photo by Scott Elmquist, Style Weekly

Ralph Northam, joined by state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, fourth from left, and Delegate Betsy Carr met with a group of young Democrats on Oct. 7 at a cafe in Richmond’s Fan District.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care

Richmond Delegate Betsy B. Carr, left, presents a General Assembly resolution congratulating the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care for 50 years of providing counseling to families, couples, children and individuals to “restore healing and hope.” Receiving the proclamation at a celebration Sept. 28 at the Virginia Historical Society are Frances Broaddus-Crutchfield, president of VIPCare’s board and contributing Free Press writer, and Dr. Douglas M. Thorpe, executive director of the Henrico County-based nonprofit. Sister Cora Marie Billings, a member of the VIPCare board, also was honored for her advocacy and work to promote counseling in the Richmond region. VIPCare was founded in 1967 by a multiracial, ecumenical group.

Published in the Richmond Free Press, October 6, 2017

RPD chief at Va. Capitol to address crime at Richmond motels

http://wric.com/2017/07/12/rpd-chief-at-va-capitol-to-address-crime-at-richmond-motels/

By Evanne Armour
Published: July 12, 2017, 7:45 pm

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Police are getting too many calls to motels running rampant with crime. Now, they are trying to team up with lawmakers to help crack down on the problem.

On Wednesday, Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham attended a Virginia Housing Commission meeting at the State Capitol. He spoke before the Neighborhood Transitions and Residential Land Use Workgroup.

He told them too much of his force is drained responding to motels that have become a hotbed for drugs and prostitution.

“What that means is there are community members that are calling 9-1-1 and there are no officers to respond,” said Durham.

Durham said it’s a problem seen in other parts of the commonwealth, too.

Richmond Inn on Midlothian Turnpike is the motel with the most calls for service in the capital city. In 2015 there were 536. In 2016 there were 483. So far this year, it’s on track to reach about 500 total again.

“These are not the folks that are going on websites and looking for hotel stays or motel stays,” said Durham. “These are local folks that come up and set up shop in these hotels.”

One woman who identified herself as a former prostitute and drug addict said something needs to be done.

“It’s a tragedy. I’m completely blessed to have made it out alive,” she told the workgroup. “The penalties definitely need to increase on the hotels. They encourage and enable the activity to continue.”

Police proposed creating legislation that would allow for localities to fine the properties for excessive calls for service, similar to false fire alarms.

But during the meeting, concerns were expressed about potential fair housing violations. They also discussed the possibility of a limit discouraging people from calling when they actually need help.

Instead, they are taking a closer look at what’s already on the books to see what they can expand or rework to target the problem.

“If we already have statutes or laws on the books that can assist us in that, we’re definitely going to accept anything they’re going to recommend,” said Durham.

Durham said the workgroup is collaboratively drafting legislation to be introduced during the next General Assembly session.

Richmond's mayoral dropouts inspire change to Virginia election law

• By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch
• Mar 21, 2017

Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed legislation this month that lays out a formal procedure for how local election officials handle candidates withdrawing from an election after it’s too late to have their names removed from the ballot.

Three of the eight candidates who qualified for the mayoral ballot pulled out of the race after the ballots had been printed.

“That was unprecedented,” said Richmond Registrar J. Kirk Showalter. “But then we’ve never had quite as many candidates for mayor either.”

The biggest eleventh-hour turn of events was former city councilman Jon Baliles’ decision to drop out of the race the week before the election and endorse the eventual victor, Mayor Levar Stoney, three days before Election Day. Bobby “BJ” Junes, a retired real estate consultant, dropped out of the race on Nov. 4. Former city councilman Bruce Tyler withdrew in late September.

Not all of the mayoral dropouts submitted official paperwork that would have allowed local registrars to post public notices announcing the full list of withdrawn candidates. Junes filed a formal notice well in advance of the election, and Baliles filed notice in the final hours of the campaign.

House Bill 1933, sponsored by Del. Betsy B. Carr, D-Richmond, specifies that if there’s not enough time to delete a candidate from the ballot, registrars must post a list of withdrawn candidates in every polling place and on local government websites. The revised law specifies that to be on the list, a candidate must file official notice rather than a press release or other public statement.

“Before, some assumed that just because they said it in the newspaper that we could act on that information,” Showalter said.

Carr said the idea for the bill came from a constituent concerned about people being “confused” by the mayor’s race.

“It’s simple. It’s basic,” Carr said. “And it’s a beginning step in the right direction so we have that process laid out.”

The bill passed the General Assembly by a wide margin. The House of Delegates approved it 92-5. The Senate vote was unanimous.

The amended law takes effect July 1.

Virginia House panel defeats bill to shield overdose victims from prosecution

By: K. BURNELL EVANS; Richmond Times-Dispatch

A proposal that would have shielded overdose victims from criminal prosecution when someone sought medical help to save them was struck down Wednesday in a House subcommittee over fears the move could enable drug use.

The vote to kill the bill from Del. Betsy B. Carr, D-Richmond, followed a revision made at the request of Republican delegates not swayed by emotional testimony on Monday from a father who said the measure would save the lives of people such as his son.

Ted Henifin told the House Courts of Justice Criminal subcommittee that police charged his son with a felony the first time his wife summoned emergency help after finding him unresponsive in a garage. When it happened again last October, the couple made a difficult choice, and spent the longest night of their lives watching their son to make sure he was still breathing.

“I don’t think we would (call police) again,” said Henifin, of Hampton. “The complications of the legal system … just really, really make helping support recovery ... much more challenging.”

The bill would have added to protections already in place to protect those who report overdoses from being prosecuted. Neither measure prevents police or a commonwealth’s attorney from bringing charges, but instead provides what is known as an affirmative defense against prosecution.

Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said Wednesday that although he was sympathetic to Carr’s intent, the bill, taken alongside bids to establish safe needle exchanges and expand access to medicine that reverses drug overdoses, went too far.

“I’m starting to feel like we’re doing everything we can to encourage it to continue,” he said, of substance abuse. “I just think cumulatively we are setting ourselves up for a big failure here.”

Supporters of Carr’s proposal flooded the meeting on Monday to encourage lawmakers not to perpetuate the view of drug abuse as a moral failing, but as a disease in need of treatment that cannot be provided through the criminal justice system.

Among them was John Shinholser, president of the Richmond area McShin recovery organization, who decried Wednesday’s vote as a hate crime that would result in deaths.

When Shinholser asked the crowd on Monday whether they would rather die or go to jail, more than a dozen people who came to lobby in support of the bill raised their hands.

“I personally probably go to 30 or 40 overdose funerals a year,” he said. “By criminalizing these cases, it’s a big hurdle for those seeking help.”

He found support in Capt. Michael Zohab of the Richmond Police Department, who oversees narcotics, and Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring.

“I think it makes a lot of sense,” Herring said in an interview. “If someone is able to get to the phone and report that they need help they shouldn’t have to be thinking, ‘Will I get in trouble?’ “

The proposal would not apply in instances where a search warrant was being issued or protect an overdose victim from prosecution for crimes unrelated to an overdose.

Herring said he knew of occasions in which people had faced drug-related charges after an overdose in the city of Richmond, which has seen opioid-related fatalities triple between 2010 and 2015.

“I have heard and been involved in conversations with lawyers here who say the current statute is broken and needs to be fixed,” Herring said.

The number of people in Richmond who survived overdosing on heroin alone has increased nearly 300 percent in the past three years — from 88 in 2014 to 343 during the entirety of 2016, according to police.

The city is not alone. Virginia’s public health commissioner declared a state of emergency in November over the ballooning opioid crisis.

State health officials have projected that more than 1,250 people in Virginia will be found to have died of a drug overdose in 2016. Drug overdoses surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of unnatural deaths in 2013, and the numbers have only increased, thanks in large part to a surge in opioid abuse.

Those statistics did not persuade lawmakers to adopt what proponents argued is a public health response to a public health issue.

“We’ve been up here reflecting on this and I am sympathetic to the notion that we want to save lives,” Gilbert said. “I believe in being proactive about trying to solve problems and I believe in unintended consequences.”