POLK COUNTY, MN (trfnews.i234.me) We have some sobering and alarming new statistics regarding the drug crisis across the nation and right here in our region, as the public debate over more jails or more treatment centers continues.
just about every day on I news you’ll see reports of folks from across our region usually folks in their 20s and 30s being arrested on drug charges it’s an effort to let you know just how bad this problem is we have some new information here but actually some startling and sobering statistics regarding the drug epidemic across the nation and right here in our region polk county commissioner warren strand l recently attended a meeting of the pine to Prairie Drug Task Force which serves eight counties here in northwestern Minnesota strand L says here are some of the statistics released by East Grand Forks Police Chief Michael hibblen who serves as chair of the task force law enforcement is now dealing with 21 variations of fentanyl and that number is rising of the people entering drug treatment meth is now the number one reason statewide task force seizures of meth were up four hundred eighty three percent from 2009 to 2016 most of the meth is coming from Mexico marijuana use is increasing with most of it coming from Colorado via mail and delivery services or by personal transport heroin seizures in Minnesota last year totaling 17,000 grams were double the number of the previous year prescription drug overdoses have become the number one cause of death in 17 states surpassing car crashes more people are dying from drug overdoses each year than died from homicide in the peak years of homicide death the United States has four point six percent of the world’s population yet uses 80 percent of the prescription opioids in 2016 the pine to Prairie drug task force made 271 arrests in eight northwestern Minnesota counties that it serves that number has already been surpassed in the first nine months of this year meanwhile a nationwide public policy discussion continues on whether to build more jails or build more treatment centers I’m Neil Berg reporting for I news TV
LOCAL DRUG STATISTICS: Investing in Jails or Treatment Centers?
