Addressing problems, looking for solutions

As investigations continue into recent fentanyl overdose deaths, community members from the Platte Valley and Carbon County gathered at the Platte Valley Community Center on February 23. Those who couldn't attend in person either attended via Zoom or watched livestreams offered by the Saratoga Sun and the Town of Saratoga. 

The community roundtable, which lasted 90 minutes, was facilitated by Saratoga Police Chief Mike Morris and Joshua Wood, interim publisher of the Saratoga Sun. Over the course of the evening, community members asked questions regarding the current investigation, discussed education of drug use and abuse, and were informed of resources available in the county.

A Multifaceted Issue

Opening the roundtable, Morris addressed the issue of drug use and abuse in the Platte Valley.

"People take drugs for different reasons. We need to address it on the front end. We need to make people more aware, we need education, we need to educate ourselves. Certainly, what I do-enforcement, detection of those who are using drugs, selling drugs-that's part of the puzzle. Support for the folks that do suffer from addiction. We also have to address the reasons they started doing the drugs in the first place," said Morris. "It is a myriad of things. There's not one answer. There's not truly one problem but it has all culminated in this."

Speaking on the law enforcement side of the issue, both Morris and Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken addressed the ongoing investigation. Earlier in the week, it had been announced an arrest had been made in connection with two overdose deaths in Saratoga.

"The investigation has become quite widespread. We can say the current fentanyl issue that we saw was an isolated incident," said Bakken. "It's called a single-source introduction. So we're working that angle right now. We believe we've identified the possible source."

Morris said, with the Saratoga Police Department aiding the Carbon County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) and the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the initial investigations were leading into others. Prior to the deaths, said Morris, he had met with officers about making drug enforcement a top issue for the department.

"We started taking some steps and working those. I'm not going to go into detail of what we were doing but then we had this tragic death and it kind of spurred things along. We've been involved in the investigations of that. Those are turning into some other investigations."

Dan Jones, a resident of Saratoga, asked Morris what the potential was of officers being let go due to the investigation. Jones cited a June 7, 2021 article in the New York Times ("How A Police Chief in Wyoming's Ranchlands Lost Her War on Drugs") about the former Guernsey police chief.

Terri VanDam sued the Town of Guernsey, winning the case and was awarded $300,000.

Starting Young

A majority of the community roundtable focused on the education of children and urges from residents for parents to be more aware of their children's online presence.

Mary Jo Greenwood-Cline, who practices as a juvenile therapist, spoke about what she had learned from her adolescent clients.

"There are adolescents in our community that are going on Instagram," said Greenwood-Cline. "You can find almost anything that you're looking for online and I've been telling all my clients 'Don't take anything from anyone' and it's really important to know what your child's online activity is, who their friends are and what they are doing in that realm."

On the subject of education, Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Superintendent Darren Jennings said schools in the district had worked closely with CCSO through the DARE Program.

"You see mixed results nationally, but with our limited population and our classrooms, those students develop a really close relationship working with those officers and it's very effective," said Jennings. "I hope Sheriff Bakken plans to continue that in our schools."

Michelle Ellis, who introduced herself to the roundtable as a recovering addict, asked Jennings if he would be open to her doing public speaking engagements at the school.

"How would the school feel about having someone like myself come in and do public speaking about drugs, drug use and the recovery process to your students," said Ellis.

"I think it would be a great idea. Education is where it starts," replied Jennings. "I think any angle we can take to educate our kids would be awesome."

Narcan or can't?

While there was discussion on how to deal with addiction on the front end with early education, there was also discussion about those currently struggling with addiction. Several times throughout the roundtable, the subject of Narcan, or Naloxone, was raised. Morris and Bakken both said officers in their departments carried the medicine. Stayton Mosby, director of the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services (SCWEMS), confirmed that it was stocked on ambulances as well.

"As a business owner, I would like to have access to that because you never know who's going to come in the door or move into your apartment or be involved with your business that's going to be involved in this situation," said Nancy Jansa, who owns apartments behind Kum & Go in Saratoga. "We could save a life."

Ellis asked about the possibility of getting grants to help with increasing the availability of Naloxone in the community.

"In the state of Utah, they give out Narcan," said Ellis. "They give it to people who are homeless, on the streets, for free to help them with addiction."

Tersa Leroux, who joined via Zoom from Rawlins, also addressed the potential of grants for Naloxone.

"I have done a lot of research on Narcan and grants to get it into our communities. If you go on the Narcan website and get the education on how to administer Narcan, I do believe that you can purchase it from the pharmacy," said Leroux. "I've been working with Recover Wyoming and they have been super helpful with giving me information on how to get grants through our Carbon County Public Health department."

While Naloxone was heavily discussed as one potential solution to the overdose deaths, others pointed out that it a "last resort."

"I think we're all here to try and address it before we get to that point. It's hard for me, sometimes, to think about giving someone multiple doses of Narcan. Asking me to do that when they're not conscious to ask for that themselves, to know whether I'm crossing a line for them or not," said Kristen Teubner, CCSD2 District Nurse. "I worked in hospice, end of life, so that's a little different scenario. At the same time, I knew what those folks wanted. For me, the biggest thing is our children and our family units where all this starts. If our family units aren't solid enough to have these conversations, then we need to have people in our community that can do it."

Resources for Recovery

What appeared to be common among those in attendance was a lack of knowledge of available resources. While Leroux mentioned working with Recover Wyoming, Megan Cragun of Carbon County Public Health said she worked with county residents who were intravenous users of controlled substances and could put people in contact with programs to get clean.

Sue Jones, Chairwoman of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners, said all the resources needed to be gathered into a central location.

"Somewhere, we have to put this all in one place. We need to leave the law enforcement people to what they do. They are truly bound by law and the Constitution and there are things that are truly no one else's business," said Jones. "I don't think we need to meddle in their world much, but I do think we need to gather the other resources together."

Jones said the local Department of Family Services office-which is located in the Carbon Building-Courthouse Annex in Rawlins-was recently inundated with up to 90 cases in the county. Additionally, according to Jones, the Youth Crisis Center-which has up to 12 beds-was full more often than it was empty.

After more than an hour, the discussion began to wind down. Morris reminded people that the roundtable was hopefully the first of many discussions on the issue in hopes of finding solutions.

"It's not my meeting, it's your meeting," said Morris. "We want to be able to see what we can do moving forward to address this."