The Forest County and Langlade County Sheriff’s departments came together to work as a team on April 14, 2016. The purpose was to hold a detailed and in-depth discussion about drug use in the area with Forest County Potawatomi (FCP) and Potawatomi Carter Casino Hotel (PCCH) employees. The event focused on drug identification and informing people about the types of drugs and contraband that they currently see being used in the community and surrounding areas.
Opening the presentation was Kim McLean, PCCH security director, who said, “We have a zero tolerance for illegal drugs on our property and we work closely with Forest County as well as Langlade County to uphold this policy. We do not tolerate the use of illegal drugs at all. These gentlemen give us the tools we need to help identify when illegal drugs are being used here at this facility. We see this on a daily/weekly basis, and with the help of these men we are learning what we are actually dealing with and how to handle the problem. This training today was specifically aimed towards the hotel staff here, but when talking with my colleagues, we wanted to make this an FCP workers community presentation so that everyone understands what we are dealing with. We even have people from Milwaukee here who work in the hotel there who see this activity and can recognize it.”
Forest County Sheriff’s department detective/sergeants Tom Robinson and Steve Ashbeck, and Dan Bauknecht, detective/sergeant at Langlade Sheriff’s department, presented this service to the community. All three are part of NORDEG, or the Northcentral Drug Enforcement Group, which is comprised of seven counties. This gives them jurisdiction in all those areas but it can also give them jurisdiction in other counties as well as even sometimes out of state.
Within the past year they have also become members of NADGI, which is the Native American Drug and Gang Initiative that gives them jurisdiction with all the Native American tribes in Wisconsin. This provides a connection with the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). It should also be mentioned that all three of these men have been involved with the Drug Task Force for the past 10 years.
This presentation included so much information that it could easily have lasted an hour longer than the time slot allowed. The detectives had a slide show to provide visuals of what these drugs look like along with noting the effects they have on people. In addition, they brought actual samples of some of these drugs that were passed around the audience so that people could see the real thing.
One of the drugs that was talked about in depth was prescription narcotics. The illegal use of these drugs is part of a huge epidemic happening right here in this area. Sgt. Robinson says, “This is the number one leading drug that we are seeing right now.” It was both shocking and amazing to hear the prices being paid for these pills in our area. Right here in Forest County, these pills are being sold for $2 per mg, which means a pill that is 30 mg is worth $60 just for that one pill. This not only results in the addicts spending a huge amount of money for their drug, but selling these pills is a huge moneymaker for the dealers. If a person is able to walk into a pain clinic and get a prescription for 180 30 mg pills, they can then turn around and sell them for $60 a pill and make a pro t of $10,800 on that one prescription. Making that kind of money so quickly and easily is a bonus to a dealer who often does not think about the harm that is being done to an addict as well as to his or her extended family including children.”
Sgt. Robinson continues, “When interviewing people who have been doing these pills, they say they can do up to four pills a day (that’s the average) though some say 20, and a couple weeks ago, someone said they were dong up to 40 pills a day. Since the beginning of the year they feel they have spent over $200,000 on prescription pills.”
The frightening thing about these pain pills and their tendency to lead to addiction is that their use can start off very innocently.
Sgt. Bauknecht says, “Many of the people we interview say they went into the doctor with something as simple as a knee injury and then became addicted to the pain pill they had been given and found themselves starting to take it more than had been prescribed to get that high.” As the pill is used more often and at bigger doses, it becomes tougher to reach that high so the addict then starts to crush the pill to snort it, smoke it, and at the end they start injecting them. Sgt. Robinson says, “The biggest trend right now in Forest County is smoking the pills.”
Once a person becomes addicted to these prescription narcotic medications, the addiction can then lead into deeper habits such as heroin use because, for the most part, heroin has now become cheaper to buy than any of these prescription narcotics. Compared to a $60 pill, a bindle of heroin can cost $15. Needless to say, once the addict reaches that point, the problem can become devastating to his or her life and may end it. With respect to this concern, Sgt. Robinson also comments, “Because heroin is so much cheaper than a pill, we are seeing a lot more of it come into the area. When I first got into the drug unit, in 2006, we were maybe seeing one heroin case every couple of years, and now we are dealing with it on a weekly basis. Heroin is definitely here with a lot of local users, and it’s all because of the prescription opiates and the pills.”
Heroin is obviously an illegal narcotic and the officers discussed how it can vary in appearance. Heroin can be brown in color. If so, it has come from the Middle East, most likely Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the world’s heroin. If it is white, there is a 99 percent chance it came from Columbia. Sgt. Bauknecht mentions that heroin is comparable to cocaine in that it is often “stepped on” which is a term used to mean that it is mixed with a different agent before it is sold to a consumer. You may have a pure ounce of heroin come across the border, but as it travels to distributors, it may be cut with something else (stepped on) and the purity of it decreases. This obviously dilutes the drug and allows the dealer to have more of the drug to sell to increase his pro t. On the surface, this may seem like a good thing to some because the user would be actually getting a lesser amount of the actual drug. The problem with this is that if the supplier gets in trouble or for some other reason the addict has to use a different supplier, that supplier may have a higher potency of the drug they are selling than the one which the addict has been using. When this happens and the user “shoots up” with their regular amount of drug, the different potency can easily result in that person overdosing because their system is not used to that higher dose of narcotic in the more potent mixture.
Sgt. Robinson mentioned, “In the Green Bay/Fox Valley area last summer they had a bad batch come into the area; within 72 hours they had 74 overdoses.” This was a high potency batch of heroin. If the addict has not developed sufficient tolerance to the narcotic – something that develops over time with increasing use – the results can be deadly. Narcotics depress respiration and overdoses can cause the user to stop breathing.
The nature of narcotics is such that a regular user will develop a tolerance to the drug and needs to increase the dose to get the same effect, be it pain relief or “the high”.
Addicts are always searching for something to amplify that high, and a drug that is another step up from heroin is fentanyl. Fentanyl is used in a patch form for long-acting pain relief from things such as terminal cancer and, as with pain pills, it, too, has a street market. Sgt. Bauknecht says, “Once a person using this drug goes into respiratory distress, which is what happens when an overdose occurs. You can swipe the inside of that person’s mouth, and it is likely you will find a piece of dental floss tied around their tooth with a fentanyl patch that has been tied to the other end and swallowed to amplify that high.” This is a very potent narcotic and the street value for this product is also very high.
Suboxone is also a drug that is abused. This drug is typically used in the management of opioid abuse and withdrawal. While it can be helpful, it can also be dangerous. Users will first take other drugs to get an opiate high and then use Suboxone in conjunction with other substances to increase the effects. Or if they are getting “dope sick” when they run out of their drug, they use this to bypass the symptoms of withdrawal sickness until they get their next x. These strips also have a high street value.
Another drug mentioned during this presentation was marijuana about which Sgt. Robinson states, “This isn’t seen as much anymore in this area because of the pills. All the younger kids in school now are going right to smoking the pills. We used to find marijuana in traffic stops all the time but not anymore. It’s all about the pills now.” In addition, because many states are legalizing marijuana, it is becoming a drug that is getting a different reputation. However, the fact remains that it is a concern because through the years, it has become genetically altered and become a much more potent drug. As a result, Sgt. Robinson says, “Many still see this as a gateway drug that can lead to something more potent later on.”
One drug that has been here for a while but is still up and coming is methamphetamine. This drug has changed through the years. Meth used to be produced in large-scale labs, in buildings such as a barn or warehouse. However, because all you need now is a soda bottle and a trip to your local Wal-Mart or hardware store for the items to make it, small home labs have sprung up and it is made in smaller quantities. The method most commonly used now is called the “shake and bake” method. Items most commonly used in making the meth are acetone, anhydrous ammonia, battery acid, brake cleaner, cold tablets containing pseudoephedrine, drain cleaner, freon, iodine crystals, paint thinner, reactive metals (sodium or lithium), red phosphorus and starting fluid (ether). Many explosions or burns come from making this product and emergency rooms often see these people with serious injuries as a result.
Sgt. Bauknecht goes on to mention, “This time of year is when you see a lot of remnants of these mini meth labs in the ditches during roadside cleanup. The bottles that people make this stuff in can still be reactive with the chemicals still in them so if you are part of a cleanup crew, do not touch the bottles at all. Call your local law enforcement and they will deal with it the right way.”
Aimed towards the hotel cleaning staff, another good point Sgt. Ashbeck says is, “Cleaning staff here will most likely find this stuff being made in the bathrooms of the hotel room. You have the perfect spot to do it, and if it blows up it’s in a small space. So if you find these bottles in the trash, get in touch with security right away.”
The presenters mentioned that meth addicts often have a characteristic appearance and presentation. They often don’t sleep and have increased activity and talkativeness as well as a decreased appetite. They often have severe and noticeable tooth decay which is also known as a “meth mouth” and may have hair loss as well as sores on their face and body from picking at the skin.
PTT asked if use of this drug was as relevant in this area as the prescription pills. The response from Sgt. Robinson was, “It’s not as common as the prescription drugs, but it is becoming a lot more common than it ever has been.”
In response to this question, Sgt. Bauknecht added, “If you travel 30 miles south of Forest County into Langlade County, meth is a pandemic there. That’s all we deal with – crystal meth. Then you travel into Marathon County and they, too, are inundated with crystal meth.”
Another drug that was mentioned in this presentation was cocaine. They showed the different forms and what it may look like with the different cutting agents.
Sgt. Robinson said, “We are seeing a lot more of the crack cocaine than the powder.” You can snort it, smoke it, or inject it just as is done with many of the other drugs mentioned. The last drug category discussed was the synthetic drugs, which technically have not been a big problem as of yet in this area. But they are definitely becoming the new trend. These drugs can be ordered off the Internet and delivered right to your front door. They include such things as bath salts (not the kind you use in a tub of water), K2, Spice, and Molly (derivative of Ecstasy) just to name a few.
Sgt. Bauknecht says, “When using some of these drugs, the user can be totally friendly one minute and then change into this whole other person with super human strength. They are not affected by anything you do to try and detain them. They don’t feel any pain so pressure points don’t work. All the Kung Fu stuff you learn as a cop doesn’t work, tasers don’t work, and pepper spray doesn’t even work. It shuts down all the pain receptors and then they become combative.”
As can be read by the information in this article, this was an extremely in-depth presentation. What is discussed is really only about half of what was covered. It was very informative to people in attendance and will be very helpful to employees by giving them an idea of what to keep an eye out for. The sergeants did a great job in answering any questions asked and really covered a large amount of information in a short period of time.
This drug use is an epidemic in the country, in our area and is very much here in this town and community. It is hoped that knowing some of this information will be useful and allow those in attendance to have a greater awareness of this problem. This may, in turn, result in them being more likely to recognize someone who needs help.
Thank you to the Forest County and the Langlade County Sheriff’s departments for an excellent and comprehensive presentation.
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