GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL | INSIDE
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Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
151st Year • No. 35 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Analysis of opioid sales by pharmacy
skewed against frontier counties
Despite being
ranked 89th in U.S.,
lone Grant County
pharmacy distributes
fewer pills per county
resident than most
counties in Oregon
and others.
The information has provided
many insights and a lot of great
journalism.
But one method of analysis that has
been used skews the data and makes
frontier counties with far fewer phar-
macies appear to be worse than other
data suggest.
Oregon numbers
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Len’s Drug ranked second in the
state for popular opioids sold per resi-
dent from 2006-2012, but far more of
the pain medications were sold per res-
ident in Multnomah County — despite
none of its many pharmacies showing
up at the top of the rankings.
The pharmacy rankings came after
a federal database pinpointing where
Contributed photo
Greg Armstrong, Len’s Drug pharmacist, said recent pharmacy rankings
are skewed.
76 billion hydrocodone and oxyco-
done pills were sold in the U.S. from
2006-2012 was made public follow-
ing a year-long court battle by The
Washington Post and the Charleston
Gazette-Mail of West Virginia.
Palmer
withdraws
resignation
Committee prepares to review
theft complaint against sheriff
The Post made part of the data-
base publicly accessible on July 18.
By Aug. 20, the newspaper reported
it had registered more than 38,000
downloads of the data and more than
550 messages from local journalists
Recently, The Oregonian used
the database to publish names and
addresses of pharmacies in Oregon
along with the number of hydroco-
done and oxycodone pills each phar-
macy sold from 2006-2012.
The Oregonian chose to rank the
list of Oregon pharmacies based on the
number of pills sold per county resi-
dent per year. In a county with only
one pharmacy, the number of pills
sold was divided by the county pop-
ulation and then by seven, the number
of years.
In the case of counties with more
than one pharmacy, the number of
pills sold was still divided by the total
county population to determine a rate
for ranking, not by a number that more
accurately reflected a pharmacy’s mar-
ket share.
Multnomah County, for example,
had 134 pharmacies from 2006-2012,
according to The Oregonian’s fig-
ures, and 709,586 residents. Dividing
the number of pills sold by one phar-
macy by that large population number
skewed the rate significantly. While
the top 34 pharmacies in The Orego-
nian’s ranking had double-digit rates,
all 134 Multnomah pharmacies had
rates of six or less.
But according to The Oregonian’s
See Opiods, Page A18
SCHOOL’S
BACK IN SESSION
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer said a
theft complaint filed against him is false and that
he is withdrawing his resignation.
Gordon Larson alleged in a complaint that
Palmer knowingly possessed, or knew the where-
abouts of, an engraved fishing pole Larson lost
and “failed to take the ethical and lawful appro-
priate action of retrieving and
returning the pole.”
Palmer, who informed Grant
County Court Aug. 14 of his
intention to resign in a couple
months, denied the claim.
“These allegations are false,
and my intent to fight them is
forthcoming,” Palmer said in a Sheriff Glenn
Palmer
statement on Facebook. “I will
be staying on until the end of
my term, and as long as this behavior continues, I
will continue to seek reelection.”
The Police Policy Committee of the Ore-
gon Department of Public Safety Standards and
Training will review the complaint and any writ-
ten information Palmer provides Nov. 21.
Larson, who retired from the Oregon State
Police in 2014, said the pole was a retirement gift
built and engraved with his name, years of ser-
vice, the OSP emblem and a golden OSP badge
inserted into the handle by OSP Sgt. Tom Hutchi-
son and his son Brandon Hutchison, who later
worked as a deputy for the Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office.
Without the reel, Larson said the pole was
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Humbolt Elementary fifth-grader Trey Hall gives Carter Watterson a high-five as they pass each other on the first day of school.
See Palmer, Page A18
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Humbolt Elementary fifth-grade teacher Anna Stargel
hands out markers for her students’ notebooks on the
first day of school.
Five school districts in Grant County opened their doors
to students on Monday for the first day of school.
Grant School District No. 3’s Humbolt Elementary,
Seneca School and Grant Union Junior-Senior High
School and Prairie City, Dayville, Long Creek and Mon-
ument school districts started Monday. Grant Union high
school students started Tuesday.
Students at Humbolt Elementary School in Canyon City
seemed bright-eyed and ready to learn.
Humbolt Principal Darbie Dennison welcomed several
new staff members.
New teachers include Andrea Ashley and Jessica
Suchorski for sixth grade, Vanessa Houpt for first grade
and Jessa Bigsby and Sena Raschio for kindergarten. Title
I teacher Regan Reneau and several other staff members
were also welcomed aboard.
Fifth-grade teacher Kelli LaFramboise said she would
spend some time reviewing classroom routines with her
students.
“It helps the school year go smoothly,” she said. “It’s
always exciting to meet the new students and set the tone
with them.”
She said she likes to share the fun of learning with her
students.
“That’s usually my goal,” she said.