Hi everyone, I'm Ed Baker. Welcome to the Addiction Recovery Channel right here on Town Meeting TV. I am your host producer and I couldn't tell you how how pleased I am to be with you here this evening. The Addiction Recovery Channel is devoted to the elimination of stigma and to the acceptance and inclusion of people with substance use disorder through a deep understanding of what exactly substance use disorder is, what treatment is and what recovery is. I couldn't be more excited to have two esteemed guests with me this evening who are experts in this field. We have Grace Keller who is a program coordinator at Howard Center Safe Recovery. Welcome Grace. Thank you. And we have Sarah George who is the Chittenden County State's Attorney. Sarah was appointed by Governor Scott in 2017 and is now serving her first elected term. Welcome Sarah. Sarah is an advocate for social justice. Thank you for having me Ed. Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you both. You know, the theme of tonight's show or today's show is harm reduction and I do believe that there's quite a bit of confusion actually about what this concept, what harm reduction actually is. So Grace, I thought it would be really helpful to begin with you and Sarah, if you want to join in too, to really kind of define what are the, what is harm reduction, what are the nuts and bolts of it. So harm reduction is a set of strategies, practical strategies aimed at reducing the harms that come along with drug use. So in the practical sense at Safe Recovery we have syringe exchange, we have Narcan which is overdose reversal medication. We have HIV and hepatitis C testing. We have, and those are really the main ways we look at harm reduction at Safe Recovery. It's really looking at giving people who use drugs a practical strategy, a menu of options to keep themselves safer while we're trying to help them get to treatment and recovery. Very nice. Very nice. Thank you. Sarah. It's an interesting question because when I actually became state's attorney, one of my primary goals was to sort of tackle the overdose epidemic that we were having at the time. As a deputy state's attorney it was someone who gets called for every overdose fatality that we have in the county. It was something that I felt like every time I was on call I was getting call after call after call about people dying alone from substance use and nobody was talking about it. And so it really was one of the first things that I did and by trying to figure out how I could help I went to people like Grace and Tom Dalton at the time and other community organizers and advocates that were working in this field to say like, what can I do? What is my office? How can I help? And that's when I really started to learn about harm reduction and ultimately realized that as the top law enforcement in the county and somebody whose job it is to protect the public, public safety is harm reduction. They're one in the same. It is about finding strategies that help keep people safe and reduce harm within communities and in this sense, actual harm to individuals, death, keeping them alive while they use drugs in order to eventually and hopefully get them into treatment but in the meantime meeting them where they're at and making sure they have the safe materials or safe avenues to navigate their addiction. Yeah, well said and also relationships with people and I know Grace said that's part of what you're so good at is having like meeting people with substance use disorder where they are and establishing a meaningful relationship with them. It's almost like it's the direct polar opposite of the war on drugs. Absolutely. Seems to be the polar opposite of it. Grace, do you want to talk to that aspect a little bit about how you meet people where they are and have relationships with them? Sure. So I've been at Safe Recovery for about 13 years and one of the things about harm reduction is it's a non-judgmental approach. It's literally meeting somebody where they are. They come at whatever stage they're in and oftentimes they're struggling with a lot of different things. It can be homelessness, it can be domestic violence, it can be mental health challenges. So really trying to meet somebody where they are and not judge them about where they are and provide them tools to stay safer and provide them housing support, employment support, help with children, those kind of things. So really it's about building that infrastructure around a person or layers of support so that they know that you're a safe person and building that relationship so they have somebody in the community that they can always go to unconditionally no matter what's going on for them. And it's absolutely critical because a lot of our clients don't have anybody else, especially anybody else in the professional world. So they really know our clients are survivors first and foremost. They're scanning the room for who's safe, who will help them, who will be there for them, who they can be authentic with. And that's really what we provide at Safe Recovery. People also sometimes do have natural supports or family supports but those aren't necessarily supports that they can be completely honest about what's going on for them. And to be able to save somebody's life you have to come with a non-judgmental approach so they can really accurately and honestly tell you what's going on for them and have authentic conversations about the risks that they have and ways to mitigate those risks, prevent those risks or support them in their day-to-day lives. Yes, well said. And you're referring to it directly, feel that they're not going to be punished, they're not going to be prosecuted, they're not going to be accused with a crime, they're not going to be looked down upon that whole unconditional kind of response to the person where they are. And with the situation, the way I think I understand it today, with some of the drugs that have contaminated the drug supply available to people with substance use disorder, we're seeing an unprecedented rate of overdose fatality. I want to put a screen up for a minute for the viewing audience. You'll notice this is a graph from the Vermont Department of Health and that orange line really is what we're talking about this evening, it's fentanyl. And you'll see a steady rise from 2010 actually through 2020, which really begins to accelerate in around 2014, that's what Governor Schumlin was referring to in the State of the State Address. From 2014 straight through 2020, there's an unprecedented rise in overdose fatality. Grace had provided me with some statistics before the show and in 2019 there were 114 deaths, overdose deaths. In 2020 there were 157, so it's a rise of 38% in one year. That's what we're dealing with and this is one of the reasons why harm reduction at this point is so much more important to really get out there and save the lives of Vermonters by meeting them where they are.  I think we just need to, it's not a fun topic, but I think the public really needs to hear what it's really like, what is it like? The best statistic that I can really demonstrate the effects of fentanyl is that at our office upon intake, we survey people and we ask them what percentage have witnessed an overdose. And for the 16 years prior to it, that number oscillated between 23 and 26% of our clients who had witnessed an overdose. In one short year in 2017, that number jumped up to 81%. So that is what we're dealing with when we're talking about fentanyl. It's an incredibly powerful opioid. It's an incredibly small molecule. It makes the drug supply very inconsistent, so it can be in one bag and not in another.  So really what we're up against is this fentanyl epidemic. And when you talk about overdose right now, we talk about the COVID crisis that we're in. Safe Recovery has about 5,000 clients. We've had a few that have been diagnosed with COVID or who have probably had COVID and didn't get medical care, but we have not had a COVID related fatality. But we are seeing overdose and other drug related harms like endocarditis and suicide increase at our office. And it's been very tragic. It's obviously completely devastating. Our clients, the relationship that we were talking about before goes both ways. Our staff is deeply embedded in our relationships with our clients. We know them. We know their children. We often know their goals and their successes. We know a lot about their lives and we know how hard they were often trying to stay alive and to be here for their families and their loved ones. So it's been really devastating to see the effects of overdose deaths. And we've put a lot of emphasis on this and we've done a lot to really prevent overdose and to see those numbers rising in spite of that has also been very, very difficult for I think all of us, especially my staff, but I think all of us that are working together to really try and prevent overdose deaths. Yeah, it's really a situation that's begging for maximum community involvement. Sarah, did you want to add to that? Yeah, just briefly, I wanted to first point out as well that this rise in fentanyl isn't just in heroin. This is now getting into other drugs that people are using, including cocaine, things that people may use somewhat recreationally, for lack of a better term, that it's now in that too. And I think that's driving a lot of these numbers for people that don't really have a long history of substance use but are maybe using once in a while and are dying from it. I also think that because of COVID, we have a lot of people that are staying home and are not interacting with their normal groups or their friends or family. So more people are using by themselves and they have less access to things like, if you come into my office, the state's attorney's office, I have a bowl of fentanyl strips at my door. But my office is closed right now, the courthouse is closed and I'm sure a lot of other places around the county are closed or aren't open in the same way that people can access those tools and strategies that Grace was talking about as easily. People are losing their jobs or are really struggling financially and so the mental health aspects and the basic needs issues of food insecurity and housing insecurity are up and so people might be using more. There's so many, this is already a really complicated substance use in general is always complicated. It almost always has some mental health aspect and trauma aspect that is not being addressed and so when our community in general is sort of limited and shut down in some ways, those can only get worse and so I would just want to kind of highlight that that's a real issue in the community right now and I think that is leading to a lot of the numbers. Yeah, I understood that COVID-19 imposed isolation and then having a drug supply that's available to you that through nothing on the person with addictions part has been contaminated with fentanyl. One of the things that I always like to remember when I think of fentanyl is when an opioid pain reliever, most of us who have had an opioid pain reliever prescribed at one point or other in life, the pharmaceutical opioids are measured in milligrams so a milligram is a thousandth of a gram, so you'll have 10 milligrams, 20 milligrams, 30 milligrams, whatever the dosage is, thousandth of a gram. Fentanyl is such a remarkably potent opioid that it's actually measured in what's called mcg or microgram which is a millionth of a gram. So you have a drug that's so powerful that it has to be measured in millions of a gram and then you have a drug cartel, an international crime organization that is motivated only by profit who is using that drug because it's easier to produce than to harvest morphine and it's easier to smuggle because you can smuggle very small amounts of it and make the same amount of money. So people, the end user, the person who has substance use disorder using that drug is injecting that drug but doesn't really know it or want it or may be afraid of it because of their addiction they're forced to use it and it's like a perfect storm of negativity. The other parts of fentanyl that make it more dangerous too is it's short acting so while it's very very potent it wears off very quickly so that the person goes into withdrawal sooner and has to use again sooner and it builds tolerances, makes the tolerance to opioids much higher so when you use a maintenance medication like methadone or suboxone or buprenorphine they need higher doses sometimes. So it's really, any way you look at fentanyl in the user, from the user's perspective it's very dangerous even in the short term and in the long term. So we have a population in Vermont, a lot of people in Vermont, fellow Vermonters, our neighbors, our sons, our daughters, or partners, you know, we have a population in Vermont with substance use disorder that's dying at an unprecedented rate. So we need now to involve the community as much as possible. It needs to be an all hands on deck effort more so than ever before and I think one of the things that happened that we all know about over this past year is we did it. Vermont is really, we really rallied around COVID-19. We had a health department that was leading the way, we had a lot of information that was disseminated and we had a lot of Vermonters that really cared about each other enough to behave in certain ways. So we can do this with addiction. So I wanted to begin to give you the floor now. There are a couple of techniques that we're going to discuss techniques that people who use drugs can employ to save lives. But there are a couple of actions that people who do not use drugs, community members, all of us can do to save lives. The first one is to call in emergency workers, to call 911. So I'd like you to speak a little bit about that. People hesitate sometimes to do that. Let's talk about that. Why they hesitate and why they shouldn't hesitate. You want me to start Grace or do you want to? Sure. No, you start, please. Okay. So I think that people rightfully have been historically concerned about that because when 911 is called, especially for an overdose, police also respond. And so when you're engaging in a behavior that is deemed illegal and stigmatized, you are automatically going to be concerned about calling the police essentially to that scene. Vermont did some really incredible work to pass the Good Samaritan law, which essentially is an immunity law that you cannot be prosecuted for the drug use or drug possession if you are calling because of an overdose. And I think that that has really, really fantastic, it's very well intentioned. And for all of the right reasons, it was passed and supported by law enforcement and our legislature. Unfortunately, like any law, there's sort of, there's loopholes and there's ways that law enforcement over some time have tested those loopholes. And although I don't think, I think ultimately most of that has gotten resolved, it still allows for the community that's using drugs to hear those stories and to internalize those stories and to continue to mistrust that process because they think, well, I know that it's the law, but my friend heard that this happened or this happened to me in the past, they cited me and yeah, they didn't charge me, but they did cite me and the police took all my drugs or whatever the process might be. We still have some work to do, but I can certainly speak on behalf of Chittenden County that that Good Samaritan Law is gold to me. It is more important to me than most of our laws and it is incredibly, I have made it very clear to law enforcement in Chittenden County that that is not to be taken advantage of and that there are no loopholes. So if you are a community member and you are, you see somebody who is overdosing or you are with somebody who overdoses, I mean, my first advice would be to always carry Narcan and to have some sort of tools otherwise, which I think we'll probably get to. But if that is not an option for whatever reason, I do strongly, strongly encourage you to call 911 and every single time that you feel like you cannot handle the situation yourself, so you cannot do it safely, call 911. And if you are in a situation where something has been taken advantage of or law enforcement has taken advantage of a loophole or attempted to or a prosecutor has, please make sure that people know about that and bring that to the attention because there have been times where Grace, for example, has been the one to tell me because of that relationship that you're talking about, Ed, where her clients trust her and so they go to her and then she's able to come to me. That person would never have felt comfortable coming straight to me as a prosecutor or to law enforcement, you know, going straight to the chief about it. So those relationships are really important. So I would strongly encourage people to not only take advantage of the Good Samaritan Law, that's what it's there for, but to also report any times where they feel like that law has been violated, taken advantage of. Really important for the viewing audience to understand that, they do have, they can call, they can get emergency workers in there, first responders, a life can be saved, they're not going to be accused of anything, they're not going to be, oh, no, you have to be a witness and you're going to be, you know, have legal problems that's not going to happen. What should happen is the person should be thanked for making the phone call and perhaps saving a life. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you for your work in that area. And I think wasn't TJ, TJ Donovan was also instrumental in that effort. Was that the case? Yeah. Grace, do you want to, do you want to talk a little bit about that, about that? The Good Samaritan Law, you know, in a state you want your laws to reflect your values. And I think the Good Samaritan Law is an excellent example of that it reflects our values. We want, in any medical situation, we want the first response to be to call 911. And this is where stigma plays a part. If you saw somebody having a heart attack, people would never think twice about calling for help or having a diabetic shock or something like that. The fact is that we've had systems that have been set up, not just in Vermont, but in the United States and other parts of the world where people have been punished or been shamed or had very severe consequences related to calling for help. And I think when we went to the legislature with the Good Samaritan Law and talked about it, they really made it as broad as possible to reflect the values of Vermonters that we would never want somebody who's suffering to not get medical care. And so I think that that's something we should really be reminding all of all Vermonters. And that lot only works if people know about it. So the public, you know, talking about it is really important too. But I think for my clients, especially, you know, their network of survivors, again, I was talking about that before. And messaging gets through, like Sarah was saying, through that network of survival that they've all had to do, especially in light of, you know, what you were talking, the war on drugs, people have had to depend on themselves because they can't depend on systems for many, many years. And what we want is the positive messaging and the accurate messaging to go through those systems rather than what Sarah is talking about when something happens in error or somebody sees a loophole. We want the message to be emergency, call for help, nothing else, no nuance, no running around and making sure that there aren't drugs on the scene. And people aren't doing that to be callous. They're doing that because they're terrified. They're doing that because they're, prior to the Good Samaritan Law, people spent many, many years in jail for well-intentioned calling for help. So we really want to infuse that messaging to everybody. And your show and other ways like that or other public announcements are really, really important. Yeah. And again, it is the polar opposite of the war on drugs, which became a war on people who use drugs, you know, it's got, it has to be over. And thank you for your contributions, both of you in this, you know, most important area. It saves lives.  Would you, would you like to do that, please? Sure. Always like to talk about Narcan. So Narcan is a nasal spray. This is Narcan. It reverses the effects of opiate overdose and gets the person breathing again. It's been, it was FDA approved in 1960. It's been safely used in emergency rooms and ambulances ever since then. And in 2013, Vermont passed a law that allowed for community-based Narcan, which means that, that I can give it to Ed and Ed can give it to Sarah and that's legal. It comes from the health department. And so what the law says is that we can give community-based Narcan to anybody who might be president and overdose. And what I want to say is we had a client a couple of years ago walking through the U-Mall parking lot in Burlington, saw somebody they didn't know overdosed in their car, opened the door and saved their life with Narcan from our office. So when you talk about that, and, and then one of our coworkers reversed an overdose on Church Street, it means that all of us could be president and overdose. If walking through a mall parking lot is where it can happen, it means that all of us can be present. It's a very easy and safe medication to, to have and to administer. And if you give it to somebody who's not overdosing, it won't do anything. So you're not going to hurt somebody. So it's very safe to carry. When we did the testimony for the bill, we talked to poison control about what would happen if a child gets it. And they said you do not have to be concerned, which for poison control to say that about a child is, is, is, is pretty serious. The truth of the matter is we don't want kids to get anything they shouldn't have. And we know that's the best practice. But it is a very, very safe medication. Our office has given out 28 over 28,000 doses. Since the law passed, we really, and we've trained over 2000 providers. So homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, libraries, schools, a lot of the schools in Chittenden County have been trained and have Narcan on site. So it's really about getting it out to anybody who might be president and overdose. If you are interested in Narcan at the end, there'll be a slide that has our office information. Always feel free. It's an anonymous program. It's free. The other thing is pharmacies do carry Narcan. There is a pay, there's a cost associated with it, but all pharmacies in Vermont have Narcan. And what Sarah was talking about, about calling 911 before this law, not every ambulance in Vermont had Narcan. Now every ambulance has Narcan. And I believe all but one or two police officers or police agencies have it. So when you call 911, the person responding will also have Narcan. So that's a really good thing to know if you don't have it. The other really good thing to know about calling 911 that I always try and tell people is even if you don't have service or a plan on the phone, if a phone can turn on it, can call 911. So always keep, even if you don't have a phone, keeping a phone that doesn't have service is always a safety measure, keeping it charged. Because even if it doesn't have service, it will be able to call for help. That's a really great point to know. And thank you for speaking so enthusiastically about Narcan, about Naloxone. Vermonters, we all put on masks and we put on double masks and we stayed six feet away from each other and we didn't see our family and we did lots of things. So I do think with an all hands on deck kind of approach, getting this kind of information out to Vermonters who care about Vermonters and a person with substance use disorder, you know, I mean literally can be one of your children and you may not know about it. It can be anybody. So having some Narcan around just doesn't seem to be, you know, it seems to be a relatively easy thing to do. And if you need it and don't have it, that's going to be very bad. So it just seems like good old sense to have some Narcan available. It also allows for really good conversations. Like I do not leave home without it. I have it in every one of my purses or bags, my car. And it is, you know, people ask, like when I'm rummaging through my purse for whatever I'm looking for, sometimes I was in an airport once and they're on an airplane and I happened to take the Narcan out of my bag in order to get to something else. And the man next to me said, are you a nurse? So he clearly knew what the Narcan was. And I said, no, I'm a prosecutor. And I think that we had such a great conversation about harm reduction and how that's my job as a prosecutor, but it's also our job as community members.  Yeah, to ever be found, I literally will, when I'm just running up to church street from my office, if even if all I grab is my ID badge and Narcan, I never leave without it. And I think that it's so important for people to recognize how easy it is and how important it could be. You may never use it. And that's great. But that is great. But if you need to use it, you don't have it. That's not great. Yeah. Yeah. And I think people would be really upset to know they could have had something and didn't. And we have given out 28,000 doses. So don't people shouldn't feel any shame or embarrassment about getting it. It's really just something that people should have. I had a similar experience to Sarah. I went to a concert in Vermont and had my bag searched and somebody asked what it was. My partner looks like, Oh, here we go. Somebody's getting the training. But the truth of the matter was they before I even said what it was, they saw the label and said, thank you. So I think the community does understand and we should really be talking to the individuals about carrying Narcan. We've also seen an increase in overdose in people that get prescribed medication and also in elderly populations. Because sometimes people take more than they should or accidentally take more than they should. So we have a law in Vermont that makes it so you can have companion prescriptions. So if you get a certain amount of milligrams, as Ed was saying, of opioids, there will be a prescription for Narcan that is there that is paid for by your insurance. So always pick that up. Sometimes you hear people declining it, but it's really good. It's just like anything else. If you have something that can kill somebody, having the antidote for it right there is best practice. And really that's what we would do for any other medication or any other parts of life that could really be dangerous. Yeah. And thank you. And little by little, because of efforts like yours, we're moving forward. And as we reduce stigma, I think these kinds of activities will become more prevalent. The more people understand what this is about, the more we'll find people taking meaningful action. Now, I want to move into the next part of the interview now. So we've covered what the general community can do. And now really it's about people who use drugs. What can people who use drugs do to make using drugs safer for them? And I want to be clear about our team here, the three of us, we're not recommending using drugs. We're not advocating that someone who doesn't use drugs should use drugs. We're saying people who use drugs, whose lives are at risk, need to have information that can help them to stay alive. And so I just want to be clear about that because sometimes it's misunderstanding. So Grace, I'd like you to begin with that. Maybe start with having someone there with you and having Narcan on board for people who are using drugs. Right. And like Ed's saying, the reality is that people use drugs and people do things that can be unsafe in all aspects of our life. So having honest conversations about safety is something we should always be doing. And people, we see the highest risk for overdose are people who are using a loan. So there's no one there to respond if they overdose. It is very, very rare if unheard of that somebody is able to respond and give themselves Narcan, especially with fentanyl on the market. Fentanyl overdoses happen much quicker. They're much more severe. So making sure that somebody is there with you and or somebody knows that you're using. So if you have to call somebody and make sure they stay on the line, there is a national service called Never Use Alone that you can call and somebody will stay on the line with you. But really trying to make sure that we're taking care of each other in a social distanced way. But you can still be be there for people and make sure that if they overdose that you can respond. Also, if there are two people that are using together, making sure that they don't use at the same time, we have had tragedies in Vermont that have involved simultaneous use simultaneous death. So making sure that one if one person is using the other person is able to respond and waiting some time till the other person uses. And again, we're just talking about practical strategies, making sure that there's a phone available. Like I said before, it doesn't even have to have service making sure that the person has Narcan. The other things that put people at risk is we often see overdose occur when there's poly substance use people using different substances together. And some of the substances that we don't think of as dangerous in acute set ways like alcohol, alcohol and opioids together can be fatal and can cause an overdose. Same with benzodiazepines like Valium and Clonopin. So it's when people are using drugs, multiple drugs at the same time that can cause an overdose also at times when people have periods of abstinence. So they're not using drugs either because they're attempting to not use drugs or they've been in a setting where they aren't able to use drugs like a jail or a treatment center. And unfortunately for some people, even years of abstinence, they're still very much at risk for overdose. And you see that you see that on the national scale with celebrities. But it's something where people's tolerance can change over 24 hours, 48 hours, and they don't have the tolerance that they did before. So we'll talk about medication assisted treatment and how that plays in, I'm sure in a little bit here, but not having drugs in the system can be a risk for fatal overdose and fatal overdose. So having somebody with you, not using a loan, and if both or three people are using doing it in a staggered or a sequential way, so if someone overdoses, someone will be able to administer Narcan and call 911, right? Did you add something to that, Sarah? And the only thing I would add, I don't think you said it, but using fentanyl pest strips, if you can, so that you do know what's in, exactly, it's very, very small, very simple. It's not going to, you know, it's not everything, but it's, and again, just like another little piece or tool that you can have. And it, you know, I've heard a lot of people wonder whether or not people who are using drugs, whether their behavior actually changes from those. And in fact, it does. People do adjust their doses based on what they find on those, when they test their test their drugs. So that's the only thing I would add. Those are, again, very easily found at safe recovery or, you know, eventually, hopefully much broader areas, but having those with you to test your drugs before you use. Chris, I want you to go over the fentanyl test strip in a second, but something Sarah just said. So that would mean that a person would prepare a dose, we would test it with a fentanyl test strip. The test strip would show that there was fentanyl included in the dose. And then they would, would they then administer like a test injection to see what the potency level was, like maybe just a little bit rather than the whole injection and overdose? Is that, is that what they would do? So with fentanyl test strips, we see a variety of people's responses. And to be clear, we also want people to test all drugs that they're using, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, for the presence of fentanyl, even if they're going to snort it or take it orally, because we have had overdoses. Fentanyl for somebody who is not, does not have an opiate tolerance, even by swallowing it or snorting it can cause an overdose. So what we do see happen in our office, we've given out thousands and thousands of fentanyl test strips, we don't count them, we don't have data on it, other than we give them out to anybody who wants them. It would be hard to track how many we give out. But we do hear of people disposing of the drug, which I even surprised me, but it does happen, especially somebody who knows that they don't have an opioid tolerance. So somebody who is an occasional cocaine user or only a cocaine user. And other than that, we hear of people using a lot less, like Ed is saying, what we call a test shot, where they take a tiny amount to see how much fentanyl is in there, and whether they are, whether it will overdose them.  So we also tell people that it can be very inconsistent, even in their own supply. They could buy five bags of a substance, and one bag could be very, very strong, and the others could be very weak. So you want to test not everything, not only everything you buy, but every time you use it should be tested for the presence of fentanyl, even if it wasn't in something else. So we see people use less, we see people make sure that somebody's there, we see people, you know, talking to the other thing that Sarah was talking about is conversations about fentanyl. And like I said, when fentanyl first came to Vermont, people didn't know enough about it, but people have seen firsthand what, like I said, 81% of our clients have identified witnessing an overdose that was in 2017. So they've seen how scary it is, they know how scary it is, they're wanting the information. I mean, like I said, our clients, one of the things that we all should be talking about too is, I think the misperception about people that use drugs is that they know the risks that they're okay with the risks. And our clients, I think demonstrated by the fact that we've given out 28,000 doses and thousands of fentanyl testing trips want to be alive. They want to survive their use, they want their friends and family to be alive. So they're taking care of themselves and each other. But we do see people mitigate the risks by knowing that fentanyl's in there, taking less, making sure that they're with their friend, making sure they talk to their friend, if their friend doesn't know what fentanyl is, and at times not using it at all. And we aren't just talking about people who use opioids regularly. Everybody in Vermont, if you're using drugs, if it's on a weekend randomly at a college reunion, or something that an anomaly, those are the people that are very much at risk too. So people should be aware if they're using cocaine, even what they think is casual use, and they're not in the drug world. They are at risk. The drug supply is contaminated, as Ed said. So it's just really something to be aware of. Yeah. And thank you. And the more conversations we can have, the more people who can get information like this, we can get this show out to whoever wants it. And the more people who can see it, share it, talk about it, use it as a prompt to have a group with maybe people who are using drugs or people who know people who use drugs, the more education we can do, the better it is. And I do believe that there's a real thirst for science-based information that's characterized by empathy. I don't think that Vermonters really want to see other Vermonters through a lens of stigma. I don't think people want to do that. I think, unfortunately, when we've all referred to it, the war on drugs for decades has taught generations to see people with substance use disorder through a lens of stigma. And it feels so good to finally be talking about it, confronting it, and peeling it away so we can see each of them more clearly. I guess one other thing is sterile syringes and infection prevention. Do you want to speak a little bit about that? Definitely. So at Safe Recovery, my office at Howard Center Safe Recovery, we are a syringe exchange. And syringe exchanges are great for a lot of reasons. They benefit the community in that places, cities and towns that have syringe exchange are much less likely to find syringes on the street. And people who use syringe exchange are sometimes more likely to access treatment than those who don't. So those are CDC statistics. This is very well known as evidence-based. And we distribute syringes for the last, I think we're at 20 years, which I think COVID has changed anniversaries. We'll probably have to do something for 25. But yes, syringe exchange is evidence-based. It prevents the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. Vermont has very, very, very low rates, almost non-existent rates of HIV in our injection drug use population. And that's because syringe exchange has been robust in Vermont for a long time. But also one of the things that we've lost clients to and recently which involves both syringe exchange and stigma is endocarditis. And endocarditis is an infection of the bloodstream that gathers around the heart and causes damage to the heart and sometimes permanent damage where people need heart valve replacements. When you talk about the cost effectiveness of syringe exchange, which that's what some people want to hear about, one heart valve replacement in a young person costs $600,000, which is way more than our budget, just so everybody knows. So preventing one case of endocarditis is really pays for itself in syringe exchange. But the truth of the matter is what typically happens is that these are otherwise young and healthy people that end up with a lifetime heart condition if they survive it. And where stigma comes in is oftentimes these start as very small infections. Sometimes you can see them on the skin, sometimes you can't, sometimes they're associated with fever. And once they get worse, they have all the other symptoms of an infection. But people who use drugs are afraid to seek medical care in many cases. And so these are the kind of things that syringe exchange and using a new syringe each time and using sterile equipment prevents, but also at times people do get infections. And we really need to be working towards creating positive relationships with medical providers so that people feel safe. Again, just like any other condition we were talking about before, we would never want somebody to not seek medical care for something that they have minor or major. But this is something where it's minor and it's caught early. It's a simple oral course of antibiotics that can be treated in an office setting. And now I'm pretty much on Zoom. But if it gets out of control, people don't survive it and it's a very sad situation. So that's where syringe exchange really shines, but also in the prevention of HIV and hepatitis C and other drug-related harms. Yeah. So again, just to speak a little bit to Stigma, if a person feels that they're going to be understood and they need infection prevention kits and they can go somewhere and not be looked down on, they're likely to go and get that kind of resource and not suffer from some of these grave consequences. And in the process, and I know you've been successful at this, Grace, I want you to speak about this for a little while. In the process of engaging with a person that's, as a non-judgmental attitude toward them and accepts them and is there for them, beginning to trust that person over time, and perhaps then accepting additional help, maybe in the form of a medication for opioid use disorder or another type of therapy, can you talk about that and what your experience at safe recovery has been with that? Sure. So medications or maintenance medications, like people might have heard of buprenorphine suboxone or methadone, are the standard of care for treatment of opioid use disorder. Those medications are also protective from overdose. So any day that somebody takes the medication that we prescribe out of our office, buprenorphine or suboxone, is a day that they're very, very, very unlikely to overdose. It's almost impossible to overdose when you have suboxone on board and you're opiate dependent. And what those medications do is they make the person feel, it prevents the person from going into withdrawal, but it also prevents them from feeling euphoria or getting high. So it gets people to feel normal again. It gets people to be able to go back to work or parent or feel healthy again. And it's really the standard of care for opioid dependence. And what we see in with stigma is oftentimes there are people that are ashamed or afraid to seek those treatments. We also at times in Vermont in this country, those treatments have been scarce or there's been waiting lists. But now we have access to those treatments on demand and at our office and at the hospital and in other hospitals in Vermont. The health departments worked really hard and the hospitals have worked really hard on making sure that if somebody walks into an emergency room, not all, but a lot of the emergency rooms, they'll get treatment for opiate use disorder, three days worth of a medication, and then they'll be connected to treatment outside within three days typically. So usually it's sooner than that, but three days allowing for the weekend. And at our office, we really wanted to capitalize on the moment when somebody's ready for treatment and not have a gap in that time. So we've made it available on demand at our office. Our efforts are really focused on people who've struggled with the traditional system or who've been kicked out of treatment or who have never attempted treatment because of barriers like mental health or stress or their job. But if you come to our office, we will get you into treatment on demand. And if people stabilize, then we help them transition to either their primary care or another setting in Vermont. But if they are still struggling or for many reasons, they can just stay at our office. And low barrier services is what we call it. Low barrier really means that we're meeting the person where they're at. If they come late, they're still seen. If they come two days late, they're still seen. What's strange is sometimes people come early, which is rare. We didn't expect that. And we work with people if they're using other drugs, counseling is encouraged but not required. So people are really prescribing that for themselves. And when you're working with a trauma, a population of people that have really struggled with trauma, it's trauma informed to allow them to decide what level they want to have and who they want as their counselor, which is not just trauma informed, it's stigma informed. Because in the general population, if you wanted to get counseling and somebody said to you, well, you have to go to this person and you have to go on Fridays and you can't be late and you can't change your appointment for any reason, you wouldn't do it. And so we want to really treat people like agents of their own recovery. And what we see is people coming to counseling and coming to case management. So it's really about trying to meet people where they are. And like I said, any day that somebody takes the medication that we prescribe, which is typically suboxone or buprenorphine, is a day they're not going to die of overdose. So it's really important to get people into treatment and keep them there. Thank you, Grace. And for the viewing audience, we'll have a slide at the end of the show with some resources and we'll let it linger. So if you can have a pencil and a paper around, you can copy down some of the numbers or the websites and you can get in touch with people or you can provide the information to someone you know and love who may need to reach out for help. Sarah, I think that could you talk just for a little while. Weren't you instrumental in some forward-moving activity around prosecuting people for possession of buprenorphine? Yeah. And I say instrumental, you know, because I was the elected that kind of started talking about it, but this is a conversation that Grace and previous to her, Tom Dalt, and have been having for years around the importance of this Medicaid, this MAT, Suboxone and buprenorphine and how important it is for people to be, to have low barrier access to it and to be comfortable with it, to possess it, to want to possess it, to divert it in any way that they feel safe doing. So I listened to them and coupled with the, the, at the time, the Burlington Police Chief, Brandon Del Pozo announced that I would not prosecute people who were in possession of this drug. It is still a illegal to possess it without a prescription. And I made the decision to implement a policy. It was the first in the country to implement the policy that we would not prosecute people for possessing it even if they did not have a prescription. And so it was therefore technically an illegal possession. The conversation was really fantastic in leading efforts to get the hospital, to get more doctors able to prescribe it and getting more of it into the community and in getting police to stop arresting for it. And, you know, I think the biggest, from my perspective, the most important aspect of it, we really didn't prosecute a lot of these cases. I think we'd only had a few come through our office in the year or so before that. But the important aspect was that conversation was the de-stigmatization of it. And for people in the community that use drugs to hear from a prosecutor and from a cop that we want you to have this, that this is safe for you, this is a better option for you. And if you have the choice between that and heroin, please take this and you will not get in trouble for it. We encourage it. And that's a really big shift when you're talking about stigma. And for people to feel accepted, that was really the more important message there. It was just for, you know, this community talks. They talk to each other. They listen to each other and they help each other. So if they start talking about, did you see this or did you hear this? Do you know where I can get this or this? Those conversations are the ones we want to be happening and we want them to feel heard and seen by elected officials and people that are in public safety roles. So it was a really great announcement. It was a great policy. It was a really great conversation. It led to, in my opinion, phenomenal results. We still had way too many people that passed away that year. But in the year that we implemented that policy and got more buprenorphine into the system, our overdose fatalities dropped by over half. So I don't think there's any question that those two things weren't related. And I think had COVID not hit, we would probably be in a much different situation because of it. I agree with you. I remember that year and what a great year that was, because it seemed like the whole effect of everything that everyone was doing so much, so many people doing so much that it finally had begun to take some effect. And we're going to get back on that again. So thank you for your effort. And that message from you, Grace, and from you, Sarah, is so important that there are people in, I mean, Grace is a person in the field, but to hear this kind of message from a prosecutor, that is so powerful. Again, it's the polar opposite of the war on drugs. And I want to thank you both for being on the show and for the lives that your efforts have saved over the years. Grace, how does that feel when you, I know you must run into someone that came in a number of years ago who now is doing great and not suffering all those symptoms that they used to suffer from. And how does that feel to see someone like that who's really doing well today? Well, and I can talk about that, but I do want to step back a little bit to talking about how, especially during that time, we had a group of people, the police, the prosecutors, the hospital, the Department of Health, a whole bunch of people get together and really look at science and compassion. And we did not look at anything else. It was like, we need to solve this. People are dying. What is going to save people's lives? And it was very, very compelling. I think it even surprised all of us how much it worked to have a 50% reduction. Sounds casual here, but no other county, I think in the country had a reduction like that. It's a very big deal. And then, and to have, I mean, for me, it's very emotional and compelling to have law enforcement officers that are, especially prosecutors, prosecutors, people don't talk about the power prosecutors have. They have a tremendous amount of power. They drive the whole system. And so to have a prosecutor talking like that, and I don't want it to go missed, the Department of Corrections also began to prescribe buprenorphine. It was in statute. But for our clients, that was, that was massive. We had people dying coming out of jail. They'd have no tolerance like I talked about before. And the people going through withdrawal in jail that had impacts outside of jail, trying to get people back into treatment when they've been through withdrawal was a very hard thing. People have been through really inhumane, and I don't want to blame the Department of Corrections in Vermont. It is across the board. And this was a new thing. They've come, they've prescribing buprenorphine to anybody who needs it. And we're seeing tremendous results of people coming out with treatment to treatment. We're seeing people that are exiting the Department of Corrections that have been involved for 20 years. I'm not kidding. These statistics show up very quickly in Sarah and my offices. And so while we talk about the negative statistics, these horrible deaths, we also know when we watch the positive ones, we need to do more of that. So I can talk about our clients coming back. But that's really, really what I want to talk about is these things are anomalies. Sarah is an anomaly, and I'm not just saying that because she's here. I would say it if she wasn't. Syringe exchanges in police departments and Department of Corrections and prosecutors all sitting at the same table with the same goal is probably a byproduct of fentanyl, but it was real. And it really did make a big difference. But yes, our clients, like I said, what we see in our office too is generational impacts. People who have gotten their kids back from DCF. People who have caught addiction very early. People who have survived so many things getting into recovery. But also I want to talk about the resiliency of people that are not ready for recovery. We have a lot of people that are living on the streets of Vermont that have for many, many years. I have clients that have lived in tents for many, many years. I have clients that I hadn't seen for a while. And they were like, oh, we're in the clinic. We're doing really well. And I was like, well, did you get housed? And they're like, no, I mean, these clients are getting up out of a tent. This was prior to COVID at 5.30 in the morning to walk over a mile to the clinic to get their dose to come back to the tent to get ready to go for work. That is resiliency that we don't have that I don't have. I don't know about you guys, but I don't have that. So to be talking about people in recovery, we also should talk about people that are surviving every day and get up and survive, do a lot more surviving before I've even gotten out of bed. So I think we really should be giving the dignity and respect to all of our clients. And it is always wonderful when people come back and say that they're using. But what's wonderful for us is that people come back at all. It shows that they feel valued and are treated with dignity. So that's really important. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.  And that I think is what resonates with your clients, Grace, is, you know, you're the real deal. And that's unmistakable. And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what amounts to, you know, a lifetime of dedication and many lives saved. And some I know lost and I know how painful that is. So I want to thank you both. Sarah, do you have anything? I'll give you, Sarah, you want to close? You want a closing comment? My closing comment would be that I agree that Grace is the best thing to happen to Chittman County. And you know, I think you're talking about like that passion that she has is definitely what resonates with her clients. It's also what resonates with, you know, people like me in these really, like she said, really powerful positions that have a lot of influence on the system and how it works. And you need people that have so much compassion that they are willing to advocate for their clients no matter what, without any judgment or stigma to really get things done. And I think it's, we need more, we need more Grace colors in the world. It's super easy for me to come out and say some of the things that I say when I know that there are folks like Grace and her team that are seeing this suffering and the successes and the struggles every single day. So my closing other than that would be just to take care of each other to really look out for one another, especially now where our eyes really aren't on each other in the same way or anything that we do is either on phone or Zoom and to check in with people and just make sure that people are doing okay and try to have eyes on in any way that you can, especially as the weather gets nicer, try to get people out of their houses so you can really see how they're doing and to gauge what help they might need. And that's not just with substance use, it's really for anything or as Grace said, our suicides are not good right now either. They're really horrifying. And so any way that you can just check on your neighbors, check on your friends, get people out of their houses and be kind to one another. I think that would be my closing request. That's beautiful. I was at a webinar with Nora Valkov, the director of the National Institute of Drug Addiction and you just reflected her sentiments exactly. One of the things that she talked about was the after COVID reality and what we're going to see that people, and I think Grace is like very much in touch with this, people who use substances, it really has been a year of loss. They've lost so many friends, they've lost access to treatment, they've lost access to recovery centers, and there's been a toll that's been taken. So as we move out of COVID-19, we do need to check in with each other, reach out to each other and give each other the support that we need. So we're going to close the show now and again, I want to just thank you both from the bottom of my heart. It's such a wonderful thing to have you on and I would extend publicly an invitation, but I know Grace is going to swear and I'll come back on the show for two years, but I'm going to say it's three years. I'm going to explain publicly an invitation for you to come back on the show at a time that you choose to talk about other topics that I know are on your agenda. So to the viewing audience, take this show and give it away, get as many people as you love, people who use drugs, people who don't, to really take advantage of the information that's been given to you. So thank you. And I want to thank you Ed, it's always a pleasure as much as I buck it, but I really do think it can't go without saying about how much you addressing stigma in the way that you have is having a huge impact. And I think when we talk about what we all can do, it's really educating ourselves and being human to each other and really looking at stigma and how even I catch myself times, there's times we have to check ourselves constantly and Ed, we need people like you that are calling it out and in a compassionate way, but consistently because it needs to be addressed, it's also it underlies all of what we're talking about here. So thank you. Thank you, Grace. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. Thank you so much, you guys. Thanks.


I've just had a brilliant idea! Let's make sand sculptures! Oh wow! I'd love to join in! We need to tip out the sand first! Let's get mucky!  I can't wait to rock and roll! Yes we can! Muck to the rescue! It's very soft this sand and really good to work with! First muck! Now you Scope! Okay team! I'm on team! Look at this mess! Can we build it? Yeah! Get up and get it into those barrels! No! Dizzy! You mix up some cement and we'll get this road level again! Work everyone! Time for tea! I'm on lofty! It's okay! What's in these buttons on the screen and click on the top right hand corner for more information!


Alright boys CFM week two We are playing the Minnesota Vikings.  Two who's a really good player. So this will be a tough matchup for the for my Eagles here Make sure I kind of want to go with the The default home jerseys that the Eagles used to wear W So this will be a tough game. Let's get it Randy Moss Chris Carter Robert Smith. Now, I will tell you YouTube twitch My video editor had the nerve To have a baby and is in in the hospital right now. So if you guys know McCullough, he is my editor He's the one that does all these great videos you guys like He is going to be a first-time father in the hospital right now. So This video will be a lack of the great editing that my other ones are so bear with me here boys I appreciate all the support you guys have shown me Some nerve of that guy some nerve. I don't know who told him that was acceptable To go have a baby on CFM weekend People are winning 60 to 58 in the league. Wow, that's that's tough there. This looks like a little man coverage To oh, we got break that tackle big fella Chad Lewis big fella Bumbling stumbling rumbling God Chad Lewis is so bad.  He's not that pretty good pretty well pretty well Oh, that was so much thick. Oh my god.  Oh, that was so tough That was so tough, dude Deep knockout that was both of my one steps right there. He just beat both of my one steps He beat both of my one steps. I am an absolute shambles right now It's gotta be knocked out. Thank you. Leto Ah, there's too much time boys. I No, come on man dog. I get the fight.  Let's go win. I mean, we just got ran by by Randy Moss that bad, huh? That's tough Maybe put Leto out there if I have out there Sheldon Brown. Yeah, he can't be pressed Damn it, man. Like, how do we fumble? Like, how do we not get a slide off right there? I swear in my life. I fumble so much right next to the line of scrimmage Tio Tio Tio Tio Tio Tio Tio Man, I think like I just gotta like Trips tight end always just gives me nightmares because The dudes just don't line up the right way. They just don't I throw that just can't be that much.   I really am this is killing me Oh my god This is absolutely killing me, man It's not that's just I just don't have a plan for trips. I really don't it's bad. It's bad Trips tight ends is the motion and trips tight end is just tough Come on, dubby.   Oh, I mean nice blocking there, dude Just love my just love that just love that in the game, dude.      Oh my god.  I was worried about a sea route. So I put him in his own and he was on post route How is this always an outside receiver when you motion over god damn Yeah, Randy Moss is just absolutely dominating me Bro, good blocking guys. That was beautiful That's exactly what I paid for dude. Good work I mean, Jesus Christ.   Thank you That's big. That's big. Let's go. That's big. Come on. I'm gonna stop right here. Is it randall 93?  Like he's killing a run. He killed just shed right there Maybe I gotta put my secure right there. He don't really have the alignment like that. I'm gonna play defense though I'm honestly in shambles. I am, dude. I don't know.  That's good I don't know Dawkins.  It's just awesome. Ain't it? My life that's short Nice. All right, good. All right life.  We got a real baggy Dude, how are you gonna knock Dawkins?  Like I just bumped dude. There we go. Try it. There we go. Come on. It's a lethal. I got my good players on I'm not even gonna guard these guys Pick. Thank you. Let's go Quentin Here we go. Come on, man. I really should put one of my secures is that The center so I can actually block and run the ball, dude Good run, Greg. I mean, there's no way that's not a first down. Thank you I thought they would try me, huh boys Chad! Chad! Big boy, let's go B. West. Come on Count core. What's up? What's up? What's up playing better defense? I kind of got a better plan as the game's going on That's what we got to stop the run, dude. Come on. Like, where's my where's my goddamn Detackle going crazy. Like, there's just no way to run is killing me Like, thank you, man. Who is that guy? Corey Simon. Come on, dude God, we're just gonna run now. God, everybody's such a broad, man They're bagged. Pick There's just no way. Thank you. Leto. Come on, man. Oh, there's gotta be a fumble. Come on. Come on. Oh Like, there's just no way I'll run defenses this bad, man Come on, man. Of course, dude. Of course They could have sent anybody that sent the guy on that.   I don't know what this is I don't know why nobody's on the tight end here. Like, why that guy doesn't Like, I don't know why nobody moves with the tight end. Like, why does that happen?  Why is nobody over there? The second play in a row, like, nobody goes over to tight end Bounds, man. I gotta get out of bounds, boys. I got two, man Chad having a big game.   I'm gonna talk about that part of it Thank you, boys. There we go. Stop the run once in our lives. First play of the game We stopped the run Here we go, curse. Thank you Dawkins, are you serious?  There's just no, who's 86 There's no way you get walked by like that Dawkins. There's just no way There's just no way you get walked by like that Tough. God, there's just too many mistakes on offense, man. Defense was terrible in the first half. We fought, but I mean, I can't lie. I wish I had another option other than to right now I'll do it to him again, Jesus Same adjustment I just wish my running. I didn't have to I do that guy for my running back to move over there I just absolutely despise that about the game. I really do.  I really do I just have to do this to get him to block that guy Running back doesn't even block me. It's called freddy big play, dude And boys, I've tried to trade with seattle. It's been in the works boys has The seattle trade has been in the works Ah Man, I just made mistakes in the first half and went down 21 points without the ball. That's tough Now it was a bad offensive performance. We fumbled with the quarterback that started it We do two bad passes And then we got stopped on a fourth down. We got one stop We got one stop. We don't even force the field goals. So like Not even forcing the field goals is tough I mean dawg, how are we just getting ran by, dude? My god, is my team like really not as good as I thought they were Dawkins can't stop number 82, man. I mean dawkins really just not a corner I mean dawkins just really can't play corner Dawkins just fell on the ground right now Nice. Good. Dawkins fell on the ground. Yo Dawkins needs to be blitzing. Okay, get that guy a 10 day contract, dude. Hey, the boy's got a sack GG, GG, GG, GG It's just too bad of a first half to recover, man. Too bad of a first half. GG, GG, GG, GG, GG I never really had a good idea for Trips tight end this year Especially since the patch when the loop is dead, but Trips is always a annoying defense Or annoying offense really You just got to have a plan on defense, man And all to blend around is a pain because it's just it's just nerd.   GG, GG, GG The Randy Moss just had 11 catches or that was going into the game There's no way Moss had 11 catches and six touchdowns. No, that was going in there. All right Yeah, Mikey, we'll see the Vikings in the Super Bowl Good times from the Mikey, man


So we're here at the ST booth here at Mobile World Congress and hi indeed. Welcome to the ST booth at Mobile World Congress 19 I'm Frederic Doloméz and I will do a quick tour of our demonstrations latest innovation. We are showcasing here Let's start with the artificial intelligence where we are showcasing some nice Applications running on our STM32 MCU. ST has a big role to play in the mobile world, right? A big role and a lot of building blocks are coming from STM microelectronics for any IoT devices And this is one of the key blocks we are showcasing today. So This is right here. There's like an AI IoT device right here. Yes here We have And writing a character recognition which has been ported directly on our L5 microcontroller So if we write S See it recognizes the letters Nice. So there's actually AI on microcontrollers. It's a big deal for ST to have this, right? It's a big deal to be able to to port the artificial intelligence neural network into a small and compact MCU to be able to have AI on any kind of MCU And this one is also AI Right here the demo Specification Nice So moving to the sensor part with our imaging Brand-new brand-new sensors And also ambient life sensing I will let Ken comment about that. Hi, so who are you? Hi, I'm Ken I'm from the image and division based in Edinburgh the UK where we one of the big sites where we make our our time-of-flight sensors And what I'm demoing here is the latest generation where we actually have an eight-by-eight Array and each of the numbers that you can see on the screen is actually representing a range of centimeters So you can see that we're now starting to build up quite a nice three-dimensional understanding of what the scene looks like So this could be used for touch-to-focus for example with the camera system and a phone And even start to build up a simple depth map of the scene So is this the resolution the resolution is eight by eight and The range that you can see the number that you can see in each of the zones is the is the centimeter distance that What happens if you go over there can I go over there so the maximum range will depend somewhat on the target It's looking at you can see we're ranging that gentlemen there until it's two meters If the light level comes down we can range further or if the target The light level the light level is lower will range further It's good it's good for us. Yeah, correct Because remember within our device We have a light source, which is a 940 And then we have the array Light sensing dials both of these elements both the laser and the array are our lens Yeah, so we've got one mounted here How do you connect them to the tablet it's coming in through USB we have an ST microprocessor And this is being adopted already so this particular one is yet to enter mass production But the previous generation where we're only able to range for one zone Has been in over a hundred million phones already worldwide. So it's a big success And it's called time of flight time of flight is the underlying technology But the key application the key use case that we've had best success with this what we call laser autofocus But we're using the range that we return on the target to help the camera system Focus faster and more accurately and we hope that this device will be helping the next base autofocus correctly Correct, so we're speeding it up. So we're essentially another element of a hybrid autofocus system Phase detect different from phase Dual pixel is laser But it's in addition to so where the phase detect data is less reliable with a contrast data is less reliable We can help with our exact range on the target so they can all work in conjunction with each other Is there any chance this kind of stuff could do like the same resolution as the actual pick the photo? I think every single pixel that could happen I think the the the natural thing and in fact we have a road map to higher resolution parts over the next couple years And for this to happen you need the laser you can't just do it with a light that's there You need to have an underlying light source. That's correct. You need to eliminate it. Yes, so it's like So it's you've already seen it for example inside some of the iPhone family with the the structured light solution And it's also operating in the infrared. Yes, that's different. It's slightly different technology But working at the same wavelength. Yeah, we're working at 940 nanometers I should say although although we've used the word laser. It's of course all I say if it's all class one So no problem with damage to the human eye. Is there any chance this can go to a very long distance? Well, that's a good question. I think for this type of technology Yes, you can and you'll start to see systems on cars for self-driving called LiDAR Which is much much longer range where you may operate up to a hundred and fifty two hundred meters This lighter is different take right? Fundamentally the underlying technology is very very similar, but just implemented in a slightly different way. Yeah. Oh, all right. Thanks a lot Thanks. All right One of the big deal for the forest another new brand new product is I live sensing Sensors So What are we looking at? So the small product is called video 62 81. It's the smallest color sensor in the market 1.1 1.8 for 1 millimeter and It combines three in one functionalities. The first one is color sensing air GB IR It also combines ultraviolet sensing UV UV a and Last but not least it's also a flicker and giant that is able to extract the light frequency To get rid of the banding effect on the image. So there on the desktop you had the actual chip. Yeah And it's why did I see those lights? Can you show it again? Sure? What is this? That's the those are the colored photodiode in the circuit. So the color they each have different color Yeah, correct that the active array of the circuit So we have several photodiodes that are colored with some color filters RGB UV and infrared To send slides and provide the information to the system and what happens when you what we're showing? So right there this demonstration is what happens with all recent smartphones in the market. So the light in your Home are usually flicking your usual tank stand neon and in a fluorescent flight are usually 50 and 60 Hertz But with the modern lighting LEDs are flicking at total unknown frequencies that can go up to 1 kilo Hertz So that's a total headache and a challenge for all camera systems today And what our sensor is providing is the actual frequency of the of the light system Flicking we can compensate With some algorithms and find the right exposure time for the camera to get rid of the bounding effect on the image How do you do that? So the flicker doesn't have to do with the color sensor. It's a two-in-one product So we are able to assist the camera for not only the camera Let's say white balance With RGB color tone tuning, but also we correct the bounding effect on the image That's a two-in-one product and that's the key differentiating factor in the market So first step is to set the right exposure time with the camera to avoid the bounding and The second stage we are just the color rendering if it's a yellow blue ish color You can compensate with true tone color sensing with the product and this This is one of the style chip and what do other people do they only do that software So usually competition is only able to perform the white balancing with conventional RGB Let's say filters. It's not fully accurate because you still miss the ultraviolet information UV information is useful to indicate if you are indoor or outdoor in the In the scene All right, okay Yes indeed the camera system complexity is increasing in the market when you look at Samsung Huawei or all Chinese phones The number of cameras becomes no two three four times We put the sensor we just connect the sensor with USB as a proof of concept to adjust the white balance of the camera and also the flicker bounding effect to correct and get rid of the The balance on the image My application of the color sensor is to help the camera system to provide a true tone and accurate color to the end user Auto white balance and also good videos without bonding effect whatever the circumstance Without flicker effect and bonding effect to avoid any, you know Blur image or bonding on the on the picture and on top you can also integrate the sensor behind the plus Because it's very high Sensitivity product and you can afford to have this kind of cover glass backside That is almost opaque Nice So if you put that here you can still correct So having that sensor the photos and videos are gonna be better. Yes, definitely It's improved you the experience for everyday life, whatever the use case front integration or rear integration into the phone That's really a breakthrough application All right, okay So let's continue the tour So here we have some demonstrations from partners using our sensor and actuator products Then this is the one of the star you will see also at embedded world the new SM32 MPU mp1 that is combining an m cortex m and a cortex a So it's a brand new product from ST and we are really proud of this integration Cortex double cortex a and cortex m integrated into a single chip And so now we have an open Linux Full ecosystem on top of the SM32 ecosystem. This is a great news. This is 60 years RF transceiver it will be good for smartphone to have some high bandwidth Transmission between two devices. I think we can go back to that demonstration quickly Yes, let's go. Sorry. Let's go this way Sorry So now you have a connection of of demonstration related to connectivity as always Bluetooth Bluetooth mesh thread mesh Moving there. We have Laura and fixed six fox connectivity also running on our SM32 boards Then here we have the NFC reader for payment application. That is also a product that has been recently announced Nice, and we'll move to the security part We Will attack Hello, so here we introduce ST 25 hours 3916 which is our latest NFC Frontend chip The demo of the purpose is to show you Payments So with this chip you can have a look that's It is my banking card Yes, a real one and so it's just using the standard system of contact less. Yes Yes, and what's special about this? There is a new Specification the EMV Oracle MasterCard visa 3.0 Specification and this chip and this board is certified EMV code 3.0 We are passing the test in the laboratory EMV code, what is EMV code? EMV code is specification Required for the contactless reader embedded in the POS and M-POS So anybody else have this solution or is brand new? All the new M-POS Have to be in the coming months all the new M-POS put on the market have to be EMV code 3.0 compliance. So it's increasing the security increasing the Capability to make very nice contactless payments. All right. Cool. All right. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much Let's move to one of the big move also in the smartphone industry that is the embedded Cima And I will let Adlo present the demonstration. All right. Hello So, who are you? I'm Adlo Sixu. I'm Working for Secure Microcontroller Division and I'm responsible of the general communication for this division And here you have a new solution for eSIM right? This is a big deal for the future of the smartphone industry. Yes, it's a big deal But the main message and the main important message that we are rich and we exceed One billion you need for the advanced Secure Microcontroller ST33 So you said one billion ST33 More than one billion you need for ST33 What is that? This is the Secure Microcontroller and the importance of the Secure Microcontroller It has been designed to fit with all the security requirements for all the application security application such as Cima or eSIM Embedded Secure Learn but also Automotive M2M or TPM And one of the main market is the Cima and eSIM and the Deployment and eSIM embedded Cima Then the eSIM based on the ST33 is now able to fit with all the requirements whatever the form factor and whatever the device So do you provide the best eSIM solution on the market? Are you the market leader for eSIM? We are the market leader for the eSIM and we reach more than 100 million units on the eSIM This is the future of the SIEM connection And it's very easy to use? I haven't tried it yet so it's just no need to a SIEM card No, no need a SIEM card You can use the SIEM card but you can also use an eSIM Nice, that's very cool But usually when devices have eSIM sometimes they remove the second SIM card Is it important to only have... The difference between SIEM and eSIM that the eSIM can manage the switch between all the MNOs With the SIEM we are connected with specific MNOs With an eSIM we can move from one to another MNOs It's really a great advancement point for the user, the final user But it's connected physically to the model? Yes, it's directly sold on the PCB of the device And an eSIM is flexible to get any SIM information in? Absolutely, the eSIM in fact is configured thanks to the remote system And the specific platform And is eSIM 100% secure? Sure Impossible to hack this eSIM system? It's a secure element It's a secure element like classical It's a really secure element And it fits with the last generation of security features We are embedded with all the last generation of attacks Is it possible to upgrade the eSIM systems or are they just secure forever? They never need to update it You know that the security is not great forever Then you have to evaluate with the attacks Then the next generation of the eSIM will be designed by our father Then we will embed another generation in the future next year Alright, cool, thanks a lot Thanks Let's continue Here we have a demonstration on the imaging as well But this time on the automotive world Where we have in-vehicle monitoring So for driver monitoring For power by our imaging sensor Let's move to the other plane We have telematics and GNSS And I will let Pascal present that to you Cool Hello, who are you? Hello, my name is Pascal Avion from eSIM Microelectronics I'm here to present MTP MTP stands for Modular Telematics Platform So what it is basically is a set of modules Connectivity modules, ATE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth through energy This goes in the car? Yeah, this is a pre-development platform That would be the main brain of the car or what is this? That's the brain of the connected car So it's where all the communication is taking place Over all those wireless and wired connectivity standards Can, internet, flex-ray, that's wired Wireless with LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth through energy Also positioning, we have precise positioning And this kind of technology and all that Is very old technology in the car industry, right? But it's not very secure And you want to make it more secure? What are you doing here? Yeah, exactly So on this development environment called MTP We have attracted working on the Tele-Maco-Trip That is a security processor here We have attracted an ecosystem of partners Also security companies such as Caramba Security, Argus And also Airbnb for the software database So those companies are putting their solutions Security solutions on Tele-Maco-Trip And we deliver to the market this solution That is pre-integrated, fully working And we have customers such as FICOZA And they have used this platform In the development of their carcom platform This is a real product that goes in a real car? It is a real product that is going to a car And they have been using the same philosophy Based on Tele-Maco-Trip They're using what we did there on the MTP And then they have used Some of the modules are the same Some of the other modules are something different Targeted to their applications So when you say Tele-Maco-Trip, what is... Which part is that? So Tele-Maco-Trip is here in the middle This is the processor That's the security processor Which one is that? Is it running an ARM Cortex something? Yeah, so it's Cortex-A It's a Cortex-A7 double core dual core And there is a Cortex-M3 So this is the new STM32MP? No, no, no What do you call it? Or is it not? Tele-Maco is a family of processors Dedicated for automotive Created for automotive With high robustness to high temperature Also for safety-relevant system Asil-B And dedicated around a very strong security core With an HSM The HSM is the key element here of Tele-Maco-Trip And that's why also all those partners Have been attracted to work with us on security What's the HSM? The HSM stands for Hardware Security Module And you're showing some kind of... What are you doing here? Hacking it?  The security is implemented The Caramba CarWall application here Is implemented on Tele-Maco So I will attack the system that is already protected And this is what's going to happen So I'm trying to Break in the system And send an exploit So injecting the exploit Doesn't work Why? Because it's protected by CarWall So now I'm doing the same Exactly the same but using a port That is on purpose Not protected So this is what's going to happen I'm attacking this other port Again I'm trying to take control of the machine Of this Linux machine here And what we normally Will see It succeeded to get the roadkits So now using this So I'm connected to the ethernet So using the network I can manipulate So here this is a Windows Laptop But I manage the roadkits So I have the full system This is Linux and it is running here So I managed to take control Of this computer in the car And I can do all nonsense that I want So for example So we have a little application Running here on Tele-Maco That is an attack So I'm doing an attack On the vehicle You're owned It says airbag deployed Speed exceeded And the doors open So it's really what you don't want to happen When you're driving a car And here we are able to hack the vehicle Completely This is when the car is not active Is this groundbreaking For the auto market Nobody has this Nobody has such a wide ecosystem Of security on a single platform With Argus providing the intrusion detection With Caramba security Providing car wall With all the hardware and mechanism Implemented in Tele-Maco 3P Such as isolation with several cars Such as the HSM Secure boots And also TEE For Linux So nobody has such a strong security architecture On the automotive processor Cool, alright, thanks a lot So this is Clothing Zotura I hope you enjoyed it And see you next year For the next edition Of Mobile Rock Monres So ST is big in a better world But also big in mobile We are everywhere And we are covering markets Like industrial, automotive Consumer markets So that's why we are everywhere And this is one of the demos that shows All the different stuff you're doing Exactly, it's That allows us to show that we are Doing a lot of industrial applications A lot of... Trying to have another view of ST Is a big challenge That's why you have a nice way To see all the different things All the different things we have And you can see more Automated World That is happening at the same time So, have a look and so


I'm doing this paper in collaboration with Ioana Otean, that is a professor in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Ecteter. I'm doing a post-op there. That's why we started this collaboration. I also need to stress that Ioana is the real expert on Dacia, Roman Dacia, so I'm most like an outsider, so please excuse any possible mistake. But yeah, in any case, we have our emails if you have any kind of question or whatever, so I will try to be the most specific as possible. So the idea of this presentation, in relation with this session, we are going to present some results, some provisional and general results of a macro-scale approach that we have been working on Dacia, but mainly focus on Lidardata in this area because it has a big forest covered. So it's very difficult to assess this area in terms of using aerial photos or satellite imagery. So I'm going to present the very general and preliminary results because most of the field work and ground truthing is still to be done next year. So this is like first approach, general things. So first of all, the location, just to give you an overview of, of course, located in Romania, Dacia is the area we are working. It's also a frontier area of the Roman Empire. Of course, the topic of the Dacian Wars on the, yeah, you see the dates, on the beginning of the second century AD. There's like a very big publicity in big profile sources, you know, from one end we have the written sources, especially the Ocasius and also some famous monuments, like the Trajan Column. So it's like the Dacian Wars seem to have like a very big importance. So our first idea is try to look at the landscape, to see if this, you know, this big publicity about the Dacian Wars is really reflected also on the landscape. So the idea is to try to see if we have a correspondence with this, with some evidence that we can find on the landscapes. So the project was focused on the surrounding area of the Dacian capital. The army is a world heritage site. And mainly this starts around 2010 or in the scope of a documentary made by BBC about Rome's lost empire. We can search it on YouTube, I think it's online. And they want to do like a chapter about Roman Dacia and Joana was a collaborator of this project and so she proposed to do a LiDAR survey of this area because as you see it has a lot of tree coverage. There's a lot of already known information about the area but the idea that we are still missing a lot of things. So that's why the idea of trying to do a LiDAR coverage of this area. So in November 2011, like the cover of the... Well, the Dacian capital, this is 10 by 10 kilometers. It's a medium-high resolution survey, more or less around 8 points per square meter. It's quite good. For instance, in Iberia we are used to work with a very low resolution. The format of the delivery information is in the last format and when I get to Exeter, Joana sent me the last files and in the past months I have been processing all this data. Classifying and filtering. Well, of course, trying two different filtering applications. I select a small area to try to adjust parameters and try to achieve the best classification as possible. When I achieve an adequate, I process all the area and then in the end I got all this big image. Then we apply, of course, different visualization techniques to try to enhance the power. This is basically all the features that have been mapped in this area through the wider set. This has been most the work of Joana, which she mapped different kinds of evidence. We are not going to look in detail at most of these evidence. The things that I'm going to talk about more in detail. This is the Dacian capital. This was another camp or fort, a Roman camp. This was the only one that was known until that moment and supposedly it should be related with the siege of the Dacian capital. Then through the wider, a new Roman camp appeared here to the southwest of Tami, Sarmi. I'm going to say Sarmi, for me it's more comfortable. Also in the northwest part, Corn, another big Roman camp. The idea then after mapping all these structures, now we are trying to understand if these Roman military sites that are surrounding the capital, they could be related with the siege, with the attack of the Dacian capital. I'm trying in the first step. This is of course the map of the sites. This is the only Roman military site that was known. It has some very strange but also interesting structures that we need to assess more in detail through the field work. Also the biggest one, the Roman camp, this is the corner, the one that was on the northwest part. The one that was already known. And also this one. Sorry for the names. This is again a new Roman site that has been found. In the first step, after all this processing and interpretation of digital data, I was trying to see if through spatial analysis, GIS spatial analysis, we could get more insights about the possible relationship of these Roman camps and forts in relation with the siege and the attack of Sarbi. This map, these colors, is a total view shot. This is basically what it gives us. It's the areas that are more topographic and visual prominent. Of course, the red areas are more visual prominent and the green are the lowest. And these lines, what they represent is intervisibility between the sites. So from Cheshulin, it can control directly Sarbi also from Munchello, but for instance from Kornow, it's impossible to see Sarbi. But in another way, he has visibility, intervisibility with Munchello. I also expressed this in graphs. This is the total view shot result. You see how Munchello and Cheshulin are more in higher positions, no, controlling Sarbi. And Kornow is also in higher position but doesn't have intervisibility with Sarbi. Also the area, we see here, Cheshulin and Munchello are very quite small sites, and Kornow is a much bigger one. Also trying to see if this is basically a natural network of pathways that comes, that goes from Sarmi. This is just trying to let us know to understand the possible routes of movement from the outside to the site. The possible access, accessibility to the site. So this is just like a natural network of pathways that only has a point of origin and don't have a point of destination. Just to try to understand if there is good accessibility between the sites and the capital or the accessibility is bad. Of course, these and these are very close relations with controlling the access through the Asian capital. This seems to be more related to other kind of aspects that we still need to understand better. And this is just to improve the least cost path between the sites itself that give us the more potential, the best potential way between the sites, in this case, not between all the landscapes. Now to try to understand the visibility and the mobility, the relation between both things. This is the visibility from Munchello, from this site. This one is the Asian capital. This is the visibility from Munchello. The idea is to try to understand the relationship between visibility and mobility in the territory. And it's very clear from the analysis that Munchello overlooks Sarmi and blocks the main hilltop to the north. This is the main access of this hilltop. So that site is clearly controlling the site itself, but also the movement towards the site. This is the other one. This one in the southeast, that again also overlooks directly Sarmi from the southwest and controls this possible connection between both two sites. The other site is more, the relationship with Sarmi is more hypothetical, it doesn't seem to have a very direct relationship. In Cormac that is this one. There's no direct visual control over Sarmi, but it controls the access from the west and also from the northwest. So these areas of mobility are out of control. This site doesn't have a direct visual relationship with Sarmi, but at least it controls the access from the west to the site. There's also again a possible relationship with Ulp, the Asian hilltop, that is this one. It doesn't have that is 1.5 kilometers to this, although there's no direct visual connection. So we are still not really sure about the possible relationship with this site, also with this new wheel for, and the Asian capital. So more work stills to be done. So just to finish, some preliminary conclusions. The camp of Cessuli, that is one to the southeast and the fort of Munchel, the one to the north, show the nature of Roman effort involving taking and controlling Sarmi's Zegetuza regia. It remains more problematic, as I told you, the one to the northeast. There's no obvious siege works. Through the latter, we don't have any evidence of more complementary siege works. Of course, the chronology of their occupation and their function remain generally unclear. So targeted fieldwork is planned and is going to be implemented next year. Of course, we don't know. We are not really sure if all these sites and it's even possible that some camps can have super positions, no? So different sites in the same area, so we still need to address that. And there seems to be, like a disc, as I mentioned in the beginning, the relations between the V commemorations of the Asian conquest and what we really have in terms of archaeology on the field. There seems to be some kind of discrepancy between the commemoration of the Asian conquest, as I mentioned, for instance, a column and also the available archaeological evidence. Maybe it should be expected more archaeological evidence in relation with the conquest of Sami Zegetuza. So the conquest of Tessia in the beginning of the 2nd century AD, can we maybe think about the deliberate political exaggeration of this conflict by Tresian, you know, just to try to achieve more political Mr. War. Yeah, yeah, well, again, so that seems to be like a, you know, a discrepancy between the old commemoration of Tessia conquest and the available archaeological evidence. And again, the work still to be done this is like preliminary hypothesis more than real work. So hopefully next year we'll add more evidence that can try to answer this kind of question. So again, just to say that in this case remote sensing that was very important for us, we're trying to go beyond the tool, of course, we still have to do a lot of work, but the idea is also that we can also use, integrate this kind of approach, remote sense approach, landscape or guilty approaches in relation to specific historical questions, historical narratives. So the big idea of this session is, you know, to try to go beyond the tool. How can we integrate these kind of spatial data sets to try to help us to answer historical questions about specific problems. So yeah, I think that's more about it. Thank you.