Wallowa County Chieftain
wallowa.com
HOSPITAL DRUGS
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gotten to where the level
of care expected is more
than the reimbursement,
and that always creates a
problem.”
The hospital has deter-
mined it can’t afford to
run the facility on its own.
The hospital underwrites
losses so the manage-
ment company can at least
break even. In the last six
months, the hospital has
written checks to the tune
of $231,000 to keep the
doors open.
“It’s a serious liability
to the hospital,” Davy said.
He added that the big-
gest challenge is that with
healthcare going toward
reimbursement and a myr-
iad of changes coming
in the future, he doesn’t
want the center to finan-
cially weaken the hospital
to the point that it’s unable
to serve the community to
the level it deserves.
Since the hospital is
a Critical Access Hospi-
tal, which is a designa-
tion given to some rural
hospitals by the Centers
for Medicare and Med-
icaid Services, the hos-
pital can’t provide center
management.
Lunde also said that 70
percent of the center resi-
dents are on Medicare and
Medicaid, which has caps
on the fees, while private
pay offers much higher
fees, something many pri-
vate management compa-
nies are considering.
“As a public entity, we
can’t do that. It’s not ethi-
cal,” he said.
Lunde said the hos-
pital is the board’s high-
est priority because as the
hospital goes, so goes the
community.
“We’re the largest
employer. You lose your
hospital, you lose your doc-
tors,” he said. “It’s a cas-
cading effect of collapse in
a community, and there’s
example after example of
that happening out there.”
“The problem with pushing
boundaries in this day and age
is that it will get you dead ––
one time,” he said.
Much of the meth manufac-
turing in the state went south
when the drug ephedrine, a
common ingredient in both
cold and allergy medicine was
banned from over-the-counter
sales. Mexico picked up the
slack, and Rogers estimates
nearly all the meth today is
manufactured in Mexico.
“They stepped in to fill the
void, and they’ve been doing
an outstanding job at it,” Rog-
ers said.
It’s also a matter of conve-
nience for drug pushers.
“It takes a lot of ephedrine
to make a little bit of meth,”
Fish added.
Williams also said she’s
seeing more people using mar-
ijuana. Particularly troubling
for all three is the use and man-
ufacture of butane hash oil,
also called “honey oil,” which
is much more refined than the
hashish of old.
The process involves strip-
ping THC, the psychoactive
substance contained in the
plant, and refining it into its
purest form.
Rogers added that the com-
mercial marijuana of today is
likely 10 times more powerful
than the marijuana of the ‘70s.
The legalization of marijuana,
which no one in law enforce-
ment leadership in the county
approves of, has brought its
own set of problems.
Williams said the county
has already seized five BHO
labs just since the legalization
of marijuana.
“It’s a real danger to the
community,” Williams said.
“The five we’ve found are just
the tip of the iceberg. They’re
so easy to make, and the butane
makes it highly volatile. They
heat it up, and it explodes.”
One lab was found in a car
with a child inside.
Chief Fish said that peo-
ple have learned to put BHO
in their e-cigarettes, where it is
virtually undetectable by smell
although it is by testing. Wil-
SUNDAY
From Page 1
Fentanyl and
fentanyl related
compounds such
as carfentanil and
acetyl fentanyl are
synthetic opioids.
Drugs in this group
have varying but
often very high
levels of potency.
In recent years they
have become more
widely available in
the United States
and grown as a
threat to public
safety.
January 31, 2018
IT’S GOING TO BE HARDER TO
GET PEOPLE INTO TREATMENT
NOW THAT POSSESSION OF A
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE IS
JUST A MISDEMEANOR. THAT
INCLUDES POSSESSION OF
THE HARDEST DRUGS UNLESS
EXCESSIVE QUANTITIES ARE
SEIZED OR THERE ARE PREVIOUS
POSSESSION CONVICTIONS.”
— MONA WILLIAMS
SOURCE: DEA
Wallowa County District Attorney
liams said that a high propor-
tion of meth cases also have
marijuana involved.
There is also agreement
that drugs exacerbate other
crimes in the county.
“This stuff is expensive, so
people without money have
to do something to get more
money,” Rogers said. The drug
trade mostly perpetuates prop-
erty crimes.
“If we’ve got an assault or
other violent crimes, meth is
often involved,” Williams said.
“With domestic violence cases,
we see alcohol and metham-
phetamine involved. It’s kind
of a part of everything.”
Fish said children of parents
who use meth are also affected
negatively. Williams remem-
bered a recent case where a
mother and son smoked meth
together.
“It’s generational,” she
said.
The Street Crime Team,
made up of all three branches
of law enforcement in the
county, is a proactive response,
but much of the work on drug
crimes is reactive because of
the limited resources, includ-
ing manpower.
“That’s one of the most
frustrating things for me,”
Williams said. “Is that what
we can actually do is reactive.
We can educate, and go into
schools, but when it comes to
what we can actually do, we
have to have a crime first.”
Rogers said that drug
crimes are equally distrib-
uted between the two sexes
and personal wealth has little
to do with whether someone
becomes an addict.
Williams added that one
of the biggest problems law
enforcement has is distin-
guishing legal treatment for
people who are addicts, which
is more a medical than crimi-
nal issue, and those who are
dealers and manufacturers.
She added that the circuit court
has a drug treatment court that
tries to intervene in the lives of
users before jail sentences and
stricter punishments. She said
recently enacted laws are ham-
pering those efforts.
“It’s going to be harder
to get people into treatment
now that possession of a con-
trolled substance is just a mis-
demeanor,” Williams said.
“That includes possession of
the hardest drugs unless exces-
sive quantities are seized or
there are previous possession
convictions.
“There’s no big hammer
for anyone that is just using,”
Williams said. She also noted
that the law does not allow law
enforcement to charge peo-
ple with possession for drugs
found in their system.
And, the law makes it
harder to get people into treat-
ment court because when it
was a felony, the court had a
conditional discharge it could
use to steer addicts into treat-
ment court, an 18-month
program.
With successful treatment
completed, charges would be
dropped.
“Now they don’t care about
having misdemeanors on their
record,” Williams said. “Now
we’re at a point where we put
them on probation, and then
it’s up to probation to deal
with addiction issues and get
them into treatment.” All three
said that few addicts were able
to get clean by their own ini-
tiative and almost all of those
were in the beginning stages of
addiction.
Williams said that although
the county is provided some
money for the supervised pro-
bation, inpatient treatment for
drug offenders was not funded.
All three also contested the
notion that decriminalizing
possession would decrease the
need for prison beds.
Very few, if any, Oregon
addicts who weren’t deliver-
ing or manufacturing drugs
went to prison, according to
Williams.
“They can’t go to prison
because under our guidelines
grid, PCS of any controlled
substance is only a level one
crime,” she said. “The most
time anyone can do, even if
it’s a felony, is 30 days in jail
whether it their first or third
possession.”
“It makes it more frustrat-
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ing,” Rogers said.
“It seems like our drug laws
have done nothing but change
in the 20 months I’ve been
here,” Fish added. Keeping up
with the evolving drug trade is
proving to be expensive. Tight
budgets have resulted in per-
sonnel cuts at the county level,
which has hurt enforcement
efforts. The county spent well
over the budgeted funds for
housing prisoners last year.
“We need these people out
of our community,” Rogers
said.
Still, silver linings remain.
The recent federal recognition
of an opioid crisis, although
in its beginning stages, might
encourage the federal govern-
ment to provide funds at the
community level to fight the
crisis. The government’s deci-
sion to come down hard on
legalized marijuana also offers
a ray of hope.
In the meantime, the three
are centering the fight against
drugs in the county’s three
school districts, trying to get a
handle on the problem before
it flourishes.
The county doesn’t fund a
school resources officer, but
both police branches spend
time around the school, ready
to answer questions and let
the students know that they’re
there to help. Williams has
educated instructors on signs
to look for in troubled students
with a budding drug problem.
“We’re always open to
doing presentations if some-
one wants us to,” Williams
said.
The group also believes
enlisting the public’s support
can be effective.
“Letting the community
know what we’re doing and
what we’re seeing is import-
ant,” Williams said. “A lot of
the public aren’t using drugs,
and honestly that’s how we get
a lot of our information.”
Rogers said citizens in the
county work hard, and it’s dif-
ficult for them to live when
they’re fearful for their job,
property or family.
“The best part I see coming
out of this is the people who
have been in denial about this
will wake up and say, ‘Oh boy,
we have a problem.’”
