Drugs on the playground illustrates local drug problem

Police estimate 90 percent of local crime can be traced back to drugs and in one disturbing case, an elementary student tried to sell dope to another student at the school playground.

Not surprisingly, drug abuse is an ever-growing problem in the Flathead Valley, according at a talk sponsored by Columbia Falls School Resource Officer Jared Haddenham recently.

At a presentation at the Junior High School recently, Haddenham and Flathead County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Vander Ark detailed the current trends in drug use, trafficking and production in the area before a crowd that was much smaller than organizers had hoped for.

“We interdict more drugs in Evergreen and the Canyon area that anywhere else in the valley. That being said, no place is immune,” Vander Ark said. “The drugs are now so accessible and we have so much of it in our community these days that we need to be educating our kids and for more people to become aware there is a problem.”

A former agent with the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, Vander Ark estimated that 90 percent of all crime in the area is drug related and that illegal drug sales are a $31 million-a-year business in the Flathead Valley.

“I would estimate that drugs drive 90 percent of the crime that we see in our county right now, from burglaries and thefts to violent crimes and murders,” he said. “Unfortunately, even though we live in a beautiful place, we are not immune to the drug problem that is permeating our nation.”

For Haddenham, the drug problem is one he says has seen increased activity in Columbia Falls schools this year, including one parent at the meeting who told of her fifth-grader being offered drugs by another student on the playground recently.

According to Vander Ark and Haddenham, while alcohol continues to be a problem in our schools, marijuana is an ever-growing threat. It’s a problem that is growing so much than Vander Ark said he would argue that marijuana is now the most widely abused drug in area schools at the moment.

One of the main problems, according to Haddenham, is students coming to school with THC-infused candy, which is potent and can be hard to recognize.

“You probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between THC infused gummy bears and ones bought at Super 1,” Haddenham said. “The packaging is nearly identical. I’m not trying to scare people, but parents need to pay attention to what their kids have in their backpacks.”

Another problem with the candies is that the high THC concentration they contain can easily lead to users absorbing more of the drug than they intended.

“The marijuana of Willie Nelson’s era is a lot different that what we have now. The THC concentrations these days can be as much as eight times as high as it was back then,” Haddenham said. “These candies and cookies are meant to be used in single doses, but when you eat multiple pieces or the whole cookie, than can be a serious problem.”

Another problem Haddenham says he has to deal with is apathy from parents.

“One thing that really worries me is that when I do catch kids with drugs at school and I call their parents, a lot of them don’t seem bothered by it,” he said. “Some even say to me that they didn’t know it was against the law. I think part of the problem is that our society has become desensitized to marijuana. When kids get caught with it, there is no shock value anymore.”

While the pair says that marijuana is a problem in the schools, it is not the only drug that is causing problems in the valley. Prescription drug abuse, heroine and meth addiction are also on the rise.

According to one recent study cited by Vander Ark, 18.3 percent of high school students across the country admitted to abusing prescription drugs. While that number may seem high, it is actually down from the 25-percent a similar study found in 2005.

“There are more people abusing prescription drugs than are using cocaine, meth, heroin, ecstasy and pcp combined,” Vander Ark said. “If you have unused drugs in your house, don’t be an innocent dealer. Bring the drugs to a disposal drop off point to be dealt with properly.”

Vander Ark also said that heroin use is on the rise in the valley as shipments of the highly-addictive drug make their way into the area from Mexico. One of the main problems he cited are the availability and lower prices available in areas outside of the valley, like Spokane. According to Vander Ark, there has been a serious problem with people purchasing drugs for a lower price in Spokane and then selling them in the Flathead Valley for a tidy profit.

While Vander Ark says that heroin is a problem in the area, he estimates there are 5-10 methamphetamine users in the area for every one heroin user. Again, the drug appears to be making its way into the area mainly from Mexico.

“It is still a regular thing to see meth labs in the valley, but there has been a sharp decrease from 15 years ago,” Vander Ark said. “We don’t see nearly as many of them because it has become so cheap to just get the drugs from Mexico.”

In fact, so many drugs have been coming into the valley recently, Vander Ark says there has been a disturbing trend of the prices actually dropping. With the lower prices and increasing availability, Vander Ark says people would be surprised by the number of drug addicts in the valley.

“Functioning drug addicts permeate our county. Drug abuse does not discriminate. We have people that have very prestigious jobs that are hooked on drugs. They need them on order to be able to function on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “The majority of meth users that I dealt with when I was undercover, if they didn’t have a drug problem, I could have been friends with them. These people are normal people, that’s what is scary. You have probably met a meth user on the street and didn’t even know it.”

The answers, according to Vander Ark, can be hard to come by, especially for drug users in Montana that are looking to get help. He cited a number of cases where drug users were looking to get into rehabilitation facilities, only to be turned away because of long waiting lists.

“There are people who legitimately want help with their drug addictions and the state of Montana does not have it available for them,” he said. “We need to get better rehabilitation facilities in this state and get help for the people who want it.”

For now, Haddenham and Vander Ark say one of the best ways to battle drug addiction in the area is to educate children about the dangers of drug use.

“We need to continue fighting this battle and we need to eradicate these drugs from coming into our valley,” Haddenham said.