While the Haines Borough’s drug enforcement task force has worked since June 2017 to find solutions to drug-related issues, recent data analyzing 12 months of emergency visits to the Haines Health Center and eight years of substance abuse data from the Lynn Canal Behavioral Health Clinic point to alcohol as a far greater issue.
The behavioral health clinic’s records show that 58 percent of the 2,610 patients enrolled from January 2010 to July 2018 sought treatment for alcohol-related issues. For drug abuse, the largest number of patients were addicted to heroin, at 124 people. Next was methamphetamine at 78 people. Other drugs listed affected fewer than 50 patients over the eight-year period.
“Alcohol is legal and alcohol is socially acceptable and so I think in the general population, more people are exposed to alcohol than other drugs,” said Kelly Williamson, borough task force member and outpatient manager at the behavioral health clinic. Both the clinic and the health center are operated by the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC).
Larry Berzanske, an addict of more than 30 years who is now enrolled in Haines Health Clinic’s opioid treatment program, said he believes drug use in the Chilkat Valley is minimal.
“I have trouble to see the drug use that they’re crying about,” Berzanske said.“I know that racket well, and I would say I know of three people that would be pushers,” he said. “Users, I could probably list 15. People that I know that are chronic users struggle to find drugs.”
SEARHC data from the health center looked at primary causes for visits to its emergency room from November 2017 to November 2018. Of 798 visits, 35 were alcohol and drug related. Of those, about 94 percent involved alcohol and almost 8 percent involved drugs, with some patients making multiple visits.
It is important to recognize that the data counts individual trips, even if the same patient makes multiple visits, said Patrick Hefley, former SEARHC administrator and drug task force member. The data is based on the primary diagnosis, he said.
Of the total 35 drug- and alcohol-related health center visits, 27 were visits by patients who came back multiple times and eight were patients who sought treatment once.
Data collection methods also have limitations, Hefley said.
“If a person was admitted with a broken leg due to a fall while under the influence, the broken leg was the primary diagnosis,” he said. “More comprehensive secondary cause of admission is not possible due to the time involved in pulling patient charts.”
Although drug-related causes were a minority of the emergency room visits to the health center, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem with drug abuse in the community, professionals warn.
“There is likely a population that doesn’t come in the doors,” Hefley said. “I think the drug abuse problem flies under the radar.”
Hefley said that looking only at hard data ignores the population of drug users that don’t come in.
The Haines District Court receives a handful of drug cases each year. In 2018, two individuals were convicted of misdemeanor drug possession, according to court records.
But Linn Asper, Haines’ part-time magistrate, said he estimates that more than half of the cases that come before him involve substance abuse, even if that is not part of the criminal charge.
“Pick a crime, there is almost always drugs connected with that,” Asper said.
Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price, who met with borough manager Debra Schnabel in Juneau on Feb. 12, told the Mayor that a lack of misdemeanor crimes in the Haines Borough indicates that the drug problem is not huge in the community.
“The commissioner simply observed that in some communities, a rise in small crimes typically correlates with trending drug abuse in a community,” department public information officer Megan Peters clarified last week.
Paul Rogers, drug task force member and a former sheriff’s department lieutenant and 911 director in Michigan, said he has seen a relationship between increased crimes and drug abuse.
“My personal experience is, when you see an increase in burglaries and larcenies, that is an indication that you probably have a drug-use problem because people that are desperate for drugs will break into homes,” Rogers said.
Police chief Heath Scott, who has suggested substance abuse is an area of concern in Haines, told the CVN that he’d be wary to call drug use a large issue. “I wouldn’t say it’s significant, I’d say we’re doing our best to combat it,” Scott said.
Asper said in his most recent two-year tenure, he has never denied a search warrant brought by the Haines Borough Police Department.
But the police department’s decision to pursue a warrant is tempered by a district attorney’s prioritization of crimes with larger impacts.
Scott said he believes local dealers are distributing substances in small quantities, which makes it harder to prosecute.
Assistant District Attorney in Juneau, Amy Paige, said a 2016 change in state laws aimed at reducing the number of people in prison and negligible amounts of evidence often influence if the state decides to dismiss a drug case.
“Where there is a very small quantity of the drug, like residue in a pipe, then very often we won’t pursue those cases,” Paige said.
Part of Paige’s job is determining which cases merit the most resources. “I know that, for (Haines), what constitutes a serious crime might be different than what constitutes a serious crime in Juneau,” she said. “I try not to screen out anything in my small communities due to lack of resources.”
In June 2017, the public safety commission recommended the borough purchase a drug-sniffing dog after Scott, officers and community members lobbied commission members. Scott said then that a drug-sniffing dog is a “vital need” for the police department, but former Michigan sheriff’s lieutenant Rogers is doubtful that it would lead police to all drug crime.
“A drug-sniffing dog would help but would it solve all of our policing problems?” Rogers said, “Absolutely not.”
Last month, more than 100 residents signed a petition asking the Haines Borough Assembly to reverse its earlier decision not to research the costs of a drug-sniffing dog.
Haines Police sergeant Josh Dryden prepared a 13-page report attached to the petition, outlining the benefits and costs of a drug-sniffing and search-and-rescue dog, that would allow police to determine probable cause required for search warrants for individuals suspected of bringing drugs to Haines through the ferry, border and airport.
At the Tuesday meeting, assembly member Heather Lende asked Schnabel to send the drug task force data to the assembly. “I think it’s important because it’s the first study that we have that actually has some real data that we’ve had and we’ve been kicking around the concerns about (drugs) for a while,” Lende said. “I think it would help us make decisions.”