Presence of marijuana, other drugs on the rise in county

The effects of marijuana legalization in Colorado reach far beyond its borders.

“Our proximity to Colorado and the availability of marijuana has certainly had an impact on us here,” said Sidney Chief of police B.J. Wilkinson. “Marijuana availability is relatively prolific in Sidney right now and lots of people we didn’t suspect a year ago, two years ago are now using today.”

Police find personal use quantities and paraphernalia on a regular basis. The number of cases submitted by the police in the last six months for misdemeanor marijuana possession and paraphernalia has grown by 50 percent, Wilkinson said.

“With that though, we’ve seen a growth in methamphetamine use as it becomes more available through the people that are habitually using and legally using marijuana in our neighboring state,” Wilkinson said. “We’ve seen a return of the availability of heroin and its use.”

Marijuana is not Wilkinson’s biggest concern.

“I’m most concerned about the resurgence of heroin and the availability of pharmaceutical grade methamphetamine in our area,” Wilkinson said. “Those are the things that are gonna kill people.”

Heroin use has skyrocketed in the Front Range during the past five or so years, but a February Denver Post article reported that the drug is now spreading to smaller nearby ski towns, as well as other rural areas.

Although local law enforcement are quite concerned about an increase in marijuana availability in the panhandle since legalization in Colorado was implemented Jan. 1, they are more concerned about the hard drugs that tend to follow in marijuana’s wake.

“It’s still illegal in Nebraska, we’re holding to that standard, but there’s other drugs coming across with them,” said Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson. “Methamphetamine is definitely still prevalent. It seems like from the reports that we’re hearing that Colorado is starting to get hit pretty hard with heroin and usually that’s only a matter of time before we see that in some part up here.”

Jenson agreed that he has seen a small amount of heroin in the area, but nothing compared to the issues Colorado is experiencing with the drug.

Even though Jenson and Wilkinson agree that any problems with heroin here are minor compared to what’s happening in other states, the incidences of possession are more common than in the past, Wilkinson said.

“It used to be very rare that you’d stop a car and you’d find personal use heroin,” Wilkinson said. “That’s happening with more frequency now. More people are telling as you are arresting them that they are an IV drug user and that their drug of choice is heroin than ever before.”

Wilkinson knows that regular marijuana use leads to harder drugs, so he’s worried about the availability of other drugs in the area.

Because construction workers are often far away from their families and have ample cash, Wilkinson is concerned that some of the hundreds of workers coming to Sidney this summer might bring drug use with them.

“Nothing sucks worse that having to send a 20-something kid home to his parents on the train in a coffin because he had more money than he had good sense while he was on the job site,” Wilkinson said.

Even before legalization in Colorado, marijuana arrests in Cheyenne County were on the rise. Medical marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2000.

There were more than 40 marijuana arrests in Cheyenne County each year since 2010. Last year saw a spike in both methamphetamine and marijuana arrests.

In 2012, less than 10 people went to jail in Cheyenne County for methamphetamine. In 2013, that number rose to more than 30. In 2012, nearly 50 marijuana arrests were made in the county, in 2013, that number rose to more than 60.

“Usually what happens is, if one goes up, they both go up,” Jenson said.

Methamphetamine arrests outpaced marijuana arrests in the county until 2008, when the tables turned.

Jenson affirmed that the amounts of marijuana in Cheyenne County have increased since Colorado’s legalization. This affects the panhandle negatively, in Jenson’s opinion.

“If your drug use goes up, your violent crimes go up, your thefts and burglaries go up,” Jenson said. “It’s an affect that you can see.”

An example of this are the burglaries that took place in rural parts of the county near the beginning of the year.

“There’s direct ties from the stolen property to drugs,” Jenson said. “Most of these people don’t work or if they do work it’s very minimal so they need to support their habit, by supporting their habit they steal from the community.”

This rise in drug crime, coming out of Colorado absolutely puts a strain on county budgets, Jenson said.

“It’s gonna continue to put a strain on county budgets and city budgets,” Jenson said.

In addition to added costs, the number of drug arrests in the area also causes problems at the jail.

“It’s been close if not maxed out most of the time,” Jenson said. “For the longest time I was running about 25 to 27 inmates. My jail capacity is 20.”

These numbers don’t include women, juveniles or more serious offenders, who are all housed in alternative locations.

“It’s put a strain on our local jail,” Jenson said.

Local law enforcement promise to try to stay on top of drug use and trafficking in the area.

“It’s interesting to think about, it’s scary to think about, it’s challenging to think about, I mean we’re kind of engaged in a cat and mouse game and our job is to see how many things that we can get in front of this problem to try to control it,” Wilkinson said.

Police plan to meet problems up front, keep the department fully staffed and to continue training amongst staff as well as to share intelligence with the sheriff’s office and Nebraska state patrol. Jenson agreed that working together is the best way to stay on top of local drug crime.

“The greatest thing we can do is work together as a team,” Wilkinson said.

A big part of tamping out drug crime is making sure citizens are informed and feel comfortable contacting law enforcement about suspicious behavior they might observe.

“You need to feel like your neighborhood is safe and your hometown is safe,” Wilkinson said. “And we’re very fortunate because ours is and so it’s our intention to keep it that way.”

Jenson pointed out that even if it puts a strain on budgets, refraining from drug law enforcement just isn’t an option.

“Then we will turn into a cesspool if we don’t enforce the laws,” Jenson said. “We want people coming into our community to understand it’s a good community, it’s a clean community and we will not tolerate drugs, violent crimes, burglaries, thefts.”

It bothers Jenson that marijuana advocates say “it’s just marijuana.” He doesn’t believe that’s true.

“It is a gateway drug for everything else,” Jenson said.

Methamphetamine use continues to be a problem. Prescription drug abuse still takes place in this area, although it’s not as prevalent as it was in the past.

“You can’t take your eye off of any one of them,” Jenson said. “That’s where our task force guys are doing a terrific job.”

Jenson touted the dedication of those who serve on the Western Nebraska Intelligence and Narcotics Group task force. The WING task force investigates drug crime throughout the entire panhandle and includes members from various law enforcement agencies throughout the region.

Jenson believes that as more counties allow the sale of legal marijuana in Colorado, the amounts of the drug seen in the panhandle will increase.

“We have spent years explaining to kids how bad marijuana is, how bad these drugs are and yet greed is getting in the way and the downside is it’s gonna ruin a good state,” Jenson said. “And it’s going to ruin several states around it if we don’t stay on top of it.”