AG Barr hears firsthand about state's meth problem

To address a methamphetamine problem in Montana he called “staggering,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., hosted a roundtable on Montana’s meth crisis with U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and other local law-enforcement figures on Friday afternoon at the Flathead County Sheriff’s Posse.

Daines wanted Barr to visit Montana to “hear firsthand from the front lines of what’s happening in Montana,” he said.

Daines said meth-related crimes were up 690% from 2011-2017. He said the days of meth being made locally with “Sudafed and Draino” are over, as Mexican cartels are now distributing “95% pure” meth in Montana. He added that “Montana is a northern border state with a southern border crisis.”

Barr followed Daines by expressing his alarm over the crisis, saying he understands that “just as well as we have an opioid crisis, we have a methamphetamine crisis.”

“The thing that scares me about this … is that it’s associated with violence. And the more meth, the more violence we’re going to have in this country,” Barr said.

He pointed out that other states are seeing fentanyl mixed with meth, and said “it’s only a matter of time before it hits Montana just as hard as other places. And that’s going to mean a lot more overdose deaths before we get this methamphetamine under control.”

Barr said the battle cannot be fought just at the local level, especially as the majority of meth in Montana comes from Mexico.

“We have to get the Mexican government to fight its war against cartels,” he said, “before they’ve lost control of their country.”

In the United States, he said the federal government needs to work “hand in glove” with law enforcement at state and local levels, but acknowledged resources are “scarce for everybody.”

“We have great cooperative relationships … I’m here to see what we can do more,” Barr said.

Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino said “the world that we once worked in is changing.”

He added that from his own perspective, “it seems more and more like the sentencing of individuals that have been tried and convicted are less and less.

“I understand the balance of the justice system has to be there,” Heino said, “but sometimes it feels like that pendulum may have swung a little bit too far back at times.”

Heino said the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program – which provides assistance to law enforcement agencies operating in areas considered critical drug-trafficking regions – has been “very helpful” to Flathead County, but a lack of personnel makes it a challenge to cover a county that is over 5,200 square miles.

Whitefish Chief of Police Bill Dial echoed Heino’s need to fund enforcement, but added “we can’t arrest our way out of this.

“We have to start young, we have to start in kindergarten. SROs [school resources officers] are so important,” Dial stressed. He advocated “getting SROs to be role models … a lot of kids don’t have role models.

“We have to look at it holistically,” Dial added.

Craig Lambrecht, chief executive officer of Kalispell Regional Healthcare, said the hospital sees lots of babies “born with withdrawal.

“You enter into this world and your first breath, you’re born with withdrawal,” Lambrecht said.

He said the hospital has “about twice the Montana rate” of babies born with withdrawal, or neonatal abstinence. He explained those babies stay an extra 35 to 40 days in the neonatal intensive-care units while their care costs “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.

“And after that, you’ve got to figure out the transition. Is it foster care, what does parenting look like … we need families for these kids,” Lambrecht said.

Barr said that while law enforcement is not the final solution, “there is no solution without law enforcement.”

He said shifting too much money to treatment and education is “a mistake.

“We are under-resourcing law enforcement,” Barr said. “I think one of the things we have to be careful about … we can’t afford to under-invest in law enforcement. We need all the resources mobilized and working together.”

Fox reiterated the need to address the situation holistically. He said “early intervention in our drug specialty courts” has been relatively successful, and he advocated for more treatment, prevention and education.

However, Fox said these solutions are also “reactionary” and do not address the source of the problem.

“We know now that we are not in the ‘Breaking Bad’ era of methamphetamine being cooked in trailers and houses and that kind of thing. It’s Mexican methamphetamine,” he said. “Until we get a handle on the source, we’re going to be fighting a losing cause.”

Fox commended local law enforcement officials and “ordinary citizens” for their work on the crisis, but said “we have not stopped the flow” of meth, as well as heroin and fentanyl.

“That ultimately is Congress’ job,” Fox said.

Barr responded, “The head of the snake is outside of the U.S. and we have to stomp on it.”

Daines said that while he spent a night on the southern border, a member of the U.S. Border Patrol told him, “There’s not going to be a silver bullet; it’s a silver buckshot.”

“There’s multiple factors here that we need to put in play,” Daines said. “It’s a difficult situation that has got to be addressed.”

Reporter Colin Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or cgaiser@dailyinterlake.com