Community discusses drug problem at forum Monday

Events have been very informative, eye-opening to those who have listened.

ONALASKA, Wis. — Speakers at a community drug forum Monday night had plenty of messages about how to spot possible drug use and deal with addiction.  

Another message, however, also came from the event at the Stoney Creek Inn.

“We just basically want to tell the dealers you’re not welcome here,” West Central Meg Unit’s Tom Johnson told the audience at the Community Drug Forum sponsored by Mid-West Family Broadcasting. “Go back to whatever hole you crawled out from under.”

The West Central MEG Unit investigates drug traffic in the La Crosse area. The group carried out a drug sting two years ago, arresting 17 people for taking part in a meth pipeline from the Cities to the Coulee Region. 

Johnson says MEG tries to disrupt drug networks, rather than arresting every user.

But arresting everyone that uses drugs seems to be a solution among lawmakers.

“They’re talking about how our prison population keeps rising,” La Crosse County Judge Todd Bjerke said. “If you heard the news lately, they want to build another prison. If they put that money into treatment, we could get these numbers down.”

County health educator Al Bliss said the use of heroin and marijuana by La Crosse County teens has been going down in the last four years. For example, heroin use among six thousand teens had been at 3 percent.

But, one oddity among youth when they see a friend overdose, it doesn’t get them to change.

“When somebody purchased an elicit drug – heroin or whatever – from a dealer, and they died, all their friends and everyone else wants to go to that dealer,” Bliss said, “because they have the best stuff that can give them the best high.”