Following are a few of the terms commonly used in this Special Focus or otherwise used in the context of drug trafficking and crime in the region. This is not an exhaustive list and addresses the specifics of this report.
Dealers: Individuals who are connected to the owners of the supply from other states and the distributors. The dealers may be individuals from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New Jersey, or they could be a local individual. They usually stay in the houses employing runners to get the drugs onto the street. Dealers sometimes exploit homeless individuals to do the selling for them in exchange for food, shelter, and other essentials.
Distributor: One person or more people who arrive in Vermont with packages of drugs, which they distribute to the various dealers.
Drug house: Also known on the streets by other colloquialisms like “crack house,” though crack might not be the actual product in question. A dwelling that serves as the dealer's local base of operations, initially established as a result of someone vulnerable being targeted [see main story]. A drug house does not have to be a whole house; usually, it is an apartment, and it can be a motel room.
Fentanyl: A synthetic opioid often used as a pain reliever, Fentanyl is less expensive than heroin and far more potent. Fentanyl or fentanyl-laced heroin are known on the street as Apache, China Girl, China White, Dance Fever, Friend, Goodfella, Jackpot, Murder 8, TNT, and Tango and Cash, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. It was responsible for about a third of all drug overdose deaths in Vermont last year.
Fronting/a front: An advance of product with an understanding that it will be sold.
Lifting: Shoplifting.
Owner: The individual(s) who supply the product and are a point of origin in a network of wholesaling and distribution of drugs. Different owners come into the distribution chain from different states or distribution points. Owners send out a variety of products, and distributors may supply different kinds of drugs to the Brattleboro market. Different states have their different distributors. The owner(s) who are the original points are almost never known or seen.
OxyContin: A narcotic opioid used as a painkiller, an extended-release version of the generic oxycodone. The street names for Oxycontin include: Oxy, OxyCotton, Hillbilly heroin, or C. Over the past few years, the opioid crisis that many are facing in the United States is linked to prescriptions that started off as painkillers.
Product: The drugs.
Runners: Individuals on the street who make the final sale of the product to end users. The runners may connect with other runners if they have different or better product.
Vulnerable populations or vulnerable individual: Anyone who might be a target for being drawn in to provide services or resources to the drug distribution network: a homeless individual, a low-income individual who receives benefits, a low-income elderly person, a person who is addicted to substances.