Worland Police Department warns parents of local drug trends

WORLAND – The Washakie County Coalition and Worland's Police Department came together to discuss current drug trends with parents of Worland and Ten Sleep's fifth through 12th-graders.

Monday night, WPD gathered parents and members of community at the Worland Middle School auditorium for presentations by Chief Gabe Elliott and Captain Zack Newton.

DRUGS

Newton spent his presentation highlighting the biggest drug encounters the force was witnessing as recently, and went over signs and symptoms of the drugs. One of the topics Newton highlighted was the amount of prescription drugs, pain killers and counterfeit pills going through the community. "Prescription drugs...it's an epidemic. Whatever you want to call it, it's here," he said. Newton mentioned to parents that teens are "more likely to abuse prescription drugs than illegal street drugs." Some of these pills may include depressants, amphetamines and prescriptions such as suboxone – a pain killer that's also used to treat addiction to narcotic pain relievers and Fentanyl – a prescription used to treat severe pain that, according to Newton, is up to 80 times more potent than morphine.

One of the more reoccurring issues with prescription drugs is the counterfeit pills that, according to Newton, are becoming more relevant right now.

He said that the national average of teens having tried prescription drugs is 13 to 14 years old, but that high schoolers are who prescription drugs reign popular with. Newton explained that the reason for this may be that they're easily accessible, prescribed and that "they're clean and not as dirty looking." Newton stated that before Fentanyl, prescription drugs had more deaths than meth, heroin and cocaine combined.

According to Newton, another local drug problem includes inhalants, which are most frequently abused by 12- to 13-year-olds. He highlighted one of the largest problems with that is sudden-sniffing death syndrome. Inhalants include solvents, aerosol sprays, gases and nitrates. They're reported to have mind-altering properties when inhaled and can cause slurred or distorted speech, lack of coordination, euphoria and dizziness. Other side effects may include vomiting, drowsiness and a headache that can last for an extended period of time.

Newton stated that "by the time students have reached the eighth grade, one in five have tried inhalants. And that's sniffing glue, huffing paint, smelling gas, paint thinner or even the Dust-Off that you would use for your keyboard or computers."

"They're easy to get. They mess you up and make you out of it for a short amount of time, then usually headaches follow, then it's back on," Newton said. "So it's super hard to detect unless you find the paraphernalia – the empty air cans and stuff. So, if you start finding the empty air cans in vehicles and bedrooms and places like that...."

"The scary thing is the Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome. Death can occur the first time or the hundredth time," he reminded. "Especially with these whiff-it's [Dust-Off], they occupy all of the room in your lungs so there's no room for oxygen. So you could pass out or you could die that way."

"It's out there, though it seems innocent. They're probably experimenting with it, using the whipped cream cans that are nitrogen, they'll use those. So keep an eye out for them. I don't know about addiction, but there are absolutely some behavioral addictions to this. For whatever reason, these people that we find, they just continue to do it and do it."

The other topic Newton covered was a common local drug problem, heroin. "Especially the last five, six, seven years in Worland, it came and it hasn't gone away," he said.

Newton discussed the appearance of the drug, as he had also brought some to show to parents after the presentation. He discussed ingestion of the drug and ways to do it such as snorting, injecting and smoking. Newton shared that almost four out of five of new users of heroin previously abused prescription pain relievers.

"Right now, it's being laced all over the country with Fentanyl. The reason they do that is because they have a poor heroin product and they want to beef it up by adding these strong, synthetic opioids to it and sell it for a good price," Newton said. He expressed signs of someone on heroin, explaining that they act as if they had taken a lot of strong pain pills. "They'd be in a depressed state. Their pupils would be dilated, they would be cold to the touch, they usually get super sick after they get high and have an extremely clouded mental state."

Newton explained the painful withdrawals that those on heroin begin to experience and also explained that "when you take these drugs, they latch on to the opiate receptors in your brain, and it acts like your body releases dopamine to make you feel better. When you do this long enough, your body starts to figure out that it doesn't need to make as much dopamine. What happens is your body starts to build that tolerance and dependence and you need this drug to function. You get to this point where nothing helps you except the next dose of heroin," he added.

"What happens when we arrest these guys is we'll look through their cell phones and the only thing they do from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed is look for heroin. 'Who can I buy it from? What can I do to get it if I don't have money?' It's not the person; it's the drug that's running all of this. It's super sad, but the dependency is crazy."

The other drug discussed was Fentanyl, which recently has started to cause more over-dose deaths in the US than any other drug. Though recent cases of fentanyl-related harm often result in overdose or death in the U.S., Fentanyl is an opioid pain reliever used for treating severe pain, though more typically cancer pain. The drug is reportedly 50- to 100-times more potent than morphine and is usually prescribed in the form of transdermal patches or lozenges.

Cases of fentanyl related harm have been linked to illegally made fentanyl which is mostly sold through the illegal drug market for its heroin like effect. According to Newton, drug makers are putting it in their heroin and cocaine in order to make their product more potent.

"Illegal fentanyl is being produced in labs in China and being shipped down to Mexico. They're sending it down to Mexico then sending it up here," Newton said. "And our kids are using it like crazy."

The other drug issues Newton discussed were bath salts, synthetic cannabinoids, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and hashish, or resin.

"How do our kids know about this?" Newton questioned. "YouTube. They see everything on there."

Newton brought up as discussed recent drug related events that had happened in Washakie County, including the heroin distribution ring and conspiracies, along with overdoses, robberies and violent acts related to drugs. One issue brought up was the dimethyltryptamine (DMT) lab found in a hotel in May 2018.

WAYS TO HELP

Newton wrapped up by discussing parents bring more involved with their child's life, and had also mentioned at sheriff's request that the Worland Police Department conducts free urine tests at parents request, and that it will be with or without enforcement action if it's requested by parents. However, when questioned by a parent how long drugs would stay in their child's system to be detectable, Newton reminded that all drugs are different and can depend on many things.

"If tested after three or four days, if not marijuana, then it's more than likely to not be caught in the urine," Newton said.

Along with the presentation, Newton also provided resources for parents including getsmartaboutdrugs.gov, drugabuse.gov and drugfree.org.

JUUL

During the presentation, Elliott gave a slideshow presentation to spread awareness on one of the newer e-cigarette trends, JUUL. He spoke out on how "JUULing" now counts for 70 percent of the e-cigarette market, making it the most common type. Elliott warned parents of the dangers that JUULs bring, and reminded them that the cigarette appeals mostly towards children, more commonly, middle schoolers. Elliott gave advice on how to approach a child on this situation and how to tell if they've been part of the trend.

He told the audience that the JUUL company has been warned of its appeal toward minors and have started to work on making their product harder to obtain, making the flavor pods online only, with age authentication.