Police chief Tischer, “Meth is big, bad deal,” in La Crosse

Chief had meeting today with community
leaders about drug epidemic

La Crosse could get some help from Washington D.C., to put the brakes on rampant drug use in the area. 

La Crosse Police Dept. chief Ron Tischer and other community leaders, who deal with heroin and meth abuse, met at Ron Kind’s office today.

Tischer says heroin had caused much of the drug-related trouble in the city until a year or two ago but now, meth has become more dominant:

“Meth is a big, bad deal here in la Crosse,” Tischer said. “And, it’s not like that on the other side of the state.”

Tischer added there’s no time to waste in bringing the problem under control quickly. 

“If we wait six months, seven months, until we can find a plce for them to get treatment,” he said, “they’ve already been doing drugs 100 times during that period and committing more crimes.”

Kind says the House and Senate have bills in the works to devote more funding to drug treatment and prevention. 

Kind has talked with local police, judges and doctors to see what the feds can do to fight drug problems at the local level. 

“It’s multifaceted,” Kind said today. “I’ve heard from these guys how complicated the situation is. But it’s a tremendous strain on their resources, personnel, money wise and their budgets. And there are no simple fixes.”

Kind says illegal drug use could ‘snowball’ if local governments can’t increase their limited budgets to go after drug suppliers. 

Along with Tischer at the press conference, were circuit Judge Todd Bjerke and others working to reduce illegal drug use in the area.