On January 8, 2014, Governor Peter Shumlin sounded the alarm on Vermont’s heroin epidemic, dedicating his entire State of the State address to attacking the issue. The speech released a media firestorm, much of it aimed at Rutland. Al Jazeera called it the “New England town ripped apart by heroin.” The New York Times described Rutland as a town with a heroin epidemic “so entrenched that it has confounded all efforts to combat it."
But there is more to the story of Rutland. Straight out of Rutland follows Nick Grandchamp and Sarah Schreiber, a Straight Edge punk couple who live and work at the heart of the problem. By taking the “edge,” they abstain from drinking, smoking, drugs and promiscuous sex. Together, they are determined to make a change and invest in the community they want to see in Rutland, fighting back against the city's drug-stained image.
From a city known for heroin comes a different story of an unlikely couple fighting to bring Rutland back from the throes of a heroin epidemic.
