Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager OUR VIEW Needle exchange program is sensible A lthough it’s depressing to consider that we live in a time when opioid drug addiction is a familiar aspect of American life even in bucolic rural areas like ours, we can derive some encouragement from the fact Clatsop County commissioners and other public officials are receptive to creat- ing a needle exchange program. Regret about an ugly situation shouldn’t get in the way of confronting it with every tool at our disposal. The county’s ability to take this sensible action was much aided by a $50,000 donation from Friends of Columbia Community Health; all communities should be so lucky as to have such a nonprofit. Although needle use here around the mouth of the Columbia is still tied in part to illicit use of methamphetamine, there’s no doubt use of heroin and related opioid drugs has become entrenched in our towns — places where heroin was an alien concept merely 10 or 15 years ago. Nationwide, deaths involving the use of the pain-relieving drugs have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found the amount of painkillers prescribed during the year was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks. While the spread of illicit forms of opioid drugs has a complex set of causes, many public health experts believe over-prescrib- ing of pain drugs has created physical dependencies in people, a few of whom then turn to cheaper heroin. Nationwide, opioids were involved in 33,091 fatal overdoses in 2015. Preliminary figures suggest a shocking increase to around 60,000 deaths in 2016. There are up to 2.6 million opi- oid addicts in the U.S. A federal report issued last week stated, “The opioid epidemic we are facing is unparalleled. The aver- age American would likely be shocked to know that drug over- doses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined.” This danger has been much increased in the past couple years by the addition of powerful synthetic pain drugs to up the strength of street heroin. The momentum of this health disaster swept up President Donald Trump this past week, who declaimed: “The opioid cri- sis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis.” An emergency declaration will be beneficial, allowing offi- cials at all levels to bypass some aspects of bureaucratic red tape that otherwise impedes sensible responses like the one in Clatsop County. Funds freed up by a presidential declaration should go toward addiction treatment and other forms of pub- lic-health intervention, and not be used to ramp up yet another failed “war on drugs” that sends addicts to prison. “We’re not going to arrest our way out of this epidemic,” a co-director of the Johns Exchanges are a Hopkins Center for Drug compassionate Safety and Effectiveness way to stem the told the Washington Post. Emergency respond- spread of blood- ers in our region have borne diseases, become increasingly used to the need to carry while building and administer the new points of contact fast-acting opiate-antidote naloxone. Administration between addicts of the antidote has and health become almost standard providers. operating procedure in some circumstances, such as when the patient is unresponsive or there are other clues they may have overdosed. The actual antidote is inexpensive, but patented delivery sys- tems make doses shockingly expensive. Congress and the pres- ident could make themselves useful by forcefully intervening in this situation that puts profits ahead of lives. Steps like the needle exchange program stir some natural concerns in the law enforcement community. Such exchanges are a compassionate way to stem the spread of blood-borne dis- eases, while building points of contact between addicts and health providers that can help lead to recovery and overdose avoidance. But, clearly, compassion should be tempered by the need to avoid creating an attractive nuisance that draws more criminal behavior to particular neighborhoods or communities. Enlightened policies can’t be permitted to become a slippery slope to “anything goes.” Law enforcement and prosecutors will best spend their time by pursuing major dealers and distribution networks. There’s no doubt that heroin and its prescription-drug sib- lings are exacting a terrible toll on our communities. Every pre- mature death and life squandered in addiction is deeply regret- table. Society’s heroin junkie is someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, brother, sister. This is a crisis worthy of everyone’s attention. SOUTHERN EXPOSURE An interview with the chief By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian C annon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn is a model of community law enforcement. A for- mer Seaside Police officer, Scher- merhorn was selected as Can- non Beach chief in 2012 out of a field of 40 candidates. His involvement with citizens and the community — be it as emer- gency preparedness leader, volun- teer firefighter, Rotary member, par- ticipant in “Shop with a Cop” and “National Night Out” or mentor for youth — is visible. He is vocal and available for residents as a go-to for those in need. His latest role is an interim one, filling in for former City Manager Brant Kucera, who left to take a similar job in the city of Sisters. We caught up with Schermerhorn at his office at police headquarters. Q: So much is going on with you in this dual role of police chief and city manager. Is it doable? A: It is doable. The great thing with Cannon Beach is that we have great employees. In the last three weeks, there have been times when each of the department heads have been gone and their crews just pick up after them and do what they need to do. Of course I am biased, but it is great for me to step away from the police department and have every- thing still going smoothly here. Everybody down the line does a great job. Q: What are the big issues you are addressing? A: As city manager, we have a new building official. The char- ter school is the big thing now. We are working with the academy on building permits. There are a lot of things that keep popping up. They’re on a time crunch to get ready. Q: Do you see timed parking as inevitable here? A: I don’t know. It was all based on the survey for the strate- gic plan, and that was one of the solutions that came up. It never hurts to try something, but the hard thing with that was, it was a rush. That upset the citizenry as well as the business owners because they said, “We want some involvement in this.” That’s always important. Q: In the past years I have seen you go through some extraordinary tragedies. The killing of a 2-year- old and attack on her 13-year-old sister, Alana, by Jessica Smith in 2014; and the death of your friend, Seaside Police Sgt. Jason Good- ding, shot by Phillip Max Ferry in February 2016. You have been through more in three years than most cops go through in a lifetime. Talk to me about that. A: You are right. It has been a career of dealing with different tragedies. The last three years have been very extreme. That’s where it falls down on your co-workers, and your family and your friends, being able to have that and separating yourself from the events. I think dealing with the homicide and Alana was very difficult for me, because the children were around my kids’ ages. You personalize that and put yourself in that situation. Q: How did you cope? A: … Cannon Beach is such a great town in dealing with those things. We got so much assistance from our citizens here and our coun- cil. Our different department heads The Daily Astorian/File Photo Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn serves up burgers at “Burger with a Cop” in June 2015. With him are family members Jennifer, Jackson and Jasmine Schermerhorn. R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Chief Jason Schermerhorn at his office in police headquarters. were very helpful and gracious in working with us. That was great. But also working with the other agencies, when you’re looking at that homicide and Jason’s homi- cide, the amount of support was amazing. That was a great resource for us. It’s really something. I think about Jason every day. Just quirks and things that he does and his daughter J.J. — Jayden is my daughter’s best friend. She is my daughter’s age, and she is the spitting image of her dad. Jason was my first recruit in Seaside. When he first came in he was assigned to me first. We were very close. We helped them move down into town. Our kids have grown up together and my wife and Amy (Goodding) have been very close. All those memories were good memories. And what a great offi- cer he was. Those are the things that I think about, the positive things. Q: Has it affected the way you approach your duties? A: Absolutely. You always have that police paranoia when you are dealing with different things, whether it’s a traffic stop or other things. You get those situations where the hair kind of jumps up on the back of your neck. Phil Ferry was somebody I had dealt with many, many times when I was in Seaside and on the drug task force where we had fought with him and he didn’t have a gun. He had physically fought with us and resisted arrest, but we had not contacted him with a firearm before. That just shows you how easily available weapons are for people. Q: I know in a very general sense there is a concern about crime in rural parts of our county. A: There are certainly locals distributing drugs and using drugs. When I was on the drug task force, we had the highest amount of drugs per capita in the state of Oregon, based on our county and the popu- lation. So much of it is going back and forth from rural areas. You also have Highway 101 which stretches from Canada to Mexico. People do not want to go the I-5 route because they know there is more law enforcement out there, bigger agencies. They think they can take this back high- way here and they’ll be free. That’s what’s great about having (Gunner) the canine here. We’ve had that 3 1/2, four years. He is a great tool to have out there. Q: What would you say is the police department’s biggest need right now? A: That is a good question. Right now we are trying to fill one of our positions. We lost (Sgt.) Josh (Gregory) to Seaside. Filling that position is probably our biggest need, just for manpower. It’s hard on officers. They’re working lon- ger hours. They’re covering shifts. That’s what’s harder with me split- ting both roles. It takes me out of the equation. I’ll cover when I can, but it doesn’t open me up to work- ing a whole lot of extra hours. Q: The city of Cannon Beach has a reputation of being far ahead of many other cities for tsunami and emergency preparedness. A: We have a great CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program. We have 42 CERT members now and 21 Medical Reserve Corps members and we’ve recently added Red Cross in the last six months. We’re moving forward in building shelters. It’s really good. But we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of that will be our South Wind project, of adding a shelter down there and getting funding for it. That is some- thing our emergency management consultant Stacy (Burr) is working on and will be bringing to the coun- cil in the next few months to get us started so we can get federal fund- ing. We need to have a shelter up there so we can begin getting grant money. Q: How can the community pro- vide you with what you need to do your job better? A: Just showing support. They’ve done that. They’ve gone above and beyond. I think we’re going to do another round to raise money for the canine. Those are ways they can show it. Also by thanking the officers when they see them and helping out when they can. R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South County reporter and editor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.