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NEWS
“Community banking means neighbors helping
neighbors.” - Becca M.
Jodie Barwiler-Fisher is calling for more resources to help people who are addicted to drugs in the Flathead Valley. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Group Organizes to Fight Growing Drug Problem
Newly organized task force says Flathead Valley needs more resources to help those addicted to drugs
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BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
Health care providers, doctors, law enforcement o cials and judges are all taking part in a newly formed task force established to battle the Flathead Val- ley’s growing drug problem.
The Flathead Valley Community Drug Task Force was established ear- lier this year by a group of caregivers at Kalispell Regional Healthcare who have become concerned with the number of patients they are seeing struggling with addiction.
According to Flathead County Sheri Chuck Curry, the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force con scated more meth- amphetamine in the rst six months of 2016 than it did during all of 2015. In 2014, the task force con scated or pur- chased in undercover operations nine pounds of meth; in 2016, it has already taken in more than 20 pounds.
The Flathead Valley Chemical Depen- dency Center is also seeing an increase in patients dealing with illegal drug addiction. In 2016, 17.5 percent of its clients have reported being addicted to methamphetamine and 7.6 percent have reported using heroin.
Local law enforcement and health o cials have said the amount of meth in
Northwest Montana now rivals what was seen in the early 2000s during the state’s rst epidemic, which spurred e orts such as the Montana Meth Project.
Mindy Fuzesy is a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) specialist at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and one of the organizers of the new drug task force. She said she has seen a sharp increase in the number of infants su ering from neonatal abstinence syndrome, which occurs when a newborn is exposed to addictive illegal or prescription drugs while in the mother’s womb. Fuzesy said between January and May of this year, 30 percent of the infants admitted to the NICU were treated for neonatal abstinence syndrome, which accounts for about 9 percent of the hospital’s total births.
Nationally, about six out of every 1,000 infants are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.
“The infants go through the same withdrawals as an adult,” Fuzesy said. “They have seizures, they vomit, they can’t keep food down, and they cry non- stop. It’s just terrible to watch a baby go through this.”
Fuzesy said more resources are needed in the Flathead Valley to help those who are su ering from drug
addiction. The task force supports the establishment of a drug court that sen- tences users to treatment instead of incarceration; the construction of more in-patient treatment services and sober living facilities; and increased access to birth control.
Amber Norbeck, a pediatric phar- macist, said more needs to be done to inform children about the dangers of drug use, speci cally prescription pills. She encouraged parents or caregivers to lock up medications they need and dis- pose of those they don’t need so the pills don’t fall into the wrong hands.
The task force is currently meeting monthly to discuss what they can do at a grassroots level to help combat drug use. Recently, Jodie Barwiler-Foster, a local mother who lost her son to heroin in 2014, spoke to the group. Barwiler-Fos- ter echoed the group’s calls for more resources in the valley.
“People who are addicted here don’t know where to go for help,” she said. “We just don’t have the resources. We need to do everything we can to help these peo- ple, because in many cases, they don’t have anything.”
For more information, visit www. borndrugfreemt
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
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www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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