SPECIAL REPORT: Meth in the Mission Valley

By TRIP BURNS

Lake County Leader

Meth is a problem in Lake County. Meth is a problem on the Flathead Indian Reservation. 

The drug has a reputation among citizens, law enforcement officials, and professionals who deal with its aftermath. That’s the easy part — identifying the problem. As far as a solution goes, it gets complicated.

“All of us are short-handed,” Lake County Sheriff Don Bell says, speaking of the time and effort spent combating the consequences of the drug in Lake County. His job is to oversee and watch over 1.3 million acres – both on the reservation and in the county. Before being elected sheriff and taking the office Jan. 1 of this year, Bell was a tribal officer for over 20 years. He knows the meth problem well, and has many years of experience working as a member of the tribe.

“The problem is multilayered,” Bell says. For example, if two people, both parents, are arrested (which is not uncommon), that means Child Protective Services needs to be involved, which draws on tax dollars. “I think the maternal aspect is there – they still love their kids,” Bell says. “But the drive for drugs is so strong; it sometimes overshadows their kids.” Bell wants to see more treatment options so the county doesn’t have to depend so much on the draw of tax dollars. If meth users are going to be a draw on community resources, Bell believes it would be more helpful to have them be treated, to get jobs and return them to some sense of normalcy. “They become part of the fix,” Bell says.

The problem of policing meth use and subsequent prevention and treatment requires support from the state and federal levels. That money is hard to come by, even with progress being made. For instance, when Bell worked as a tribal officer, much effort was spent cracking down on the manufacturing of meth. Shutting down the majority of labs has been a success in the tribal and law enforcement work. That is a result of years of investigation through police work and developing criminal informants. As of this year, it is rare for them to hear about meth labs in Lake County, according to Bell. However, now the drug comes mostly from out of state and Bell believes most can be traced back to Spokane. “Most of the drugs are brought in,” Bell says. “We need to make it not so accessible.”

With limited treatment options in Lake County, drug users and addicts are often recycled through the system. “There’s a high chance with no treatment,” Bell says, “that they are going to go back to doing what they were doing before. It starts that same cycle.”

The jails are full in Lake County. “We run at max most of the time,” Bell says. As a result, people arrested for possession of methamphetamines are sometimes returned right back to the streets because of overcrowding in the jail. This is not because law enforcement can’t prosecute them, but it also deals with the simple logistics of testing the drug to get a confirmation it is indeed meth to be used as evidence. In the past, getting the drug tested took an average of a year. Demand is high at the state crime lab in Missoula, straining the resources of the state.

“There’s a choke point,” County Prosecutor Steve Eschenbacher says. “How many technicians they have and how many samples can be analyzed. It’s all done in Missoula.” Eschenbacher is a former public defender, which gives him a unique insight into the problem in Lake County. Last year his office filed 204 felony cases. Most were drug-related. This year, he estimates 450 cases being filed. “We’re catching more people. We’re getting rid of the backlog,” Eschenbacher says. This influx of new cases does not reflect a rise in meth usage, but that the shorter turnaround at the crime lab allows Eschenbacher’s office to prosecute more offenders and rid the court of older cases. Even with a backlog of cases slowly dwindling, there is still the logistics of what to do with a convicted meth addict. 

Not only are the jails full, but when meth samples are sent to the crime lab to be tested and used as evidence, the process can take as long as 2 to 3 months to get a confirmation. This turnaround helps, but there is still a gap. During that time, the persons arrested return home because they cannot be charged. 

Possession of meth is not the only crime that city and tribal officials deal with on a regular basis. “Because they are addicted,” Eschenbacher says, “They are going out and creating all these other crimes. Usually burglaries.”

It is not uncommon for law enforcement to arrest that same person two or three more times before the first results come back from the crime lab in Missoula. The cycle continues into a pattern of criminal activity, Eschenbacher says. Meth users know this and exploit the system. “Word gets around fast, it’s not hard to figure out,” Eschenbacher says.

The issue of treatment for meth users is where it gets complicated. Whereas law enforcement can use evidence for conviction, law enforcement cannot predict what treatment is needed. 

“The trouble is, there are so many different levels of treatment,” Eschenbacher says. “I would like to have a treatment center. I would like to have a residential treatment center, because in that way we can keep the people closer to their family and friends.” The flipside of that, he says, is that being with the same people will often contribute to the same problems of being addicted in the first place. As a former public defender, Eschenbacher knows the problem and what can happen to common everyday people when they become addicted to methamphetamines. “Quitting is not easy,” Eschenbacher says.

“I remember in another county, where a woman had been using meth and demanded her boyfriend come into the room,” Eschenbacher says. “He was playing a video game and didn’t come into the room quick enough, so she took a pistol and shot out the window, trying to get his attention. That’s how bad her judgment was.”

Treatment is a viable option for meth users, and can reinstate a person back into society. Just last week Eschenbacher ran into an old client from his public defender days. This person was off of meth and doing well. “He had gone through treatment, and is now training to be an addiction counselor,” he says. “There is hope.”