Drug abuse: an uphill battle

Editor's note: This is the final part of a multi-part series on prescription drug abuse in Lincoln County. The names have been changed to protect the identities of the minors involved.

Lincoln County Sheriff's Detective Boyd White has seen an increase in abuse of prescription medications in Lincoln County recently. White is also a member of the Northwest Drug Task Force, which spans Lincoln, Flathead and Lake counties.

"Prescription drugs are a big issue, we're seeing high rates of abuse and it's on the rise," White explained. "It's a pretty widespread problem from kids in the middle schools to older aged adults."

In the Friday, Jan. 11 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 issues of The Western News two teenage girls from Lincoln County shared their stories of drug abuse and an eventual climactic point in their lives that ended their drug abuse.

Jenn started smoking marijuana at 10 years old and eventually moved on to methamphetamine and prescription pills. A fight sent Jenn to drug counseling and eventually she was able to clean her system of drugs. She goes to counseling to work through her drug abuse. Jenn also has bad cavities in her teeth due to the drug abuse.

However, due to all the drugs she put in her system, she has problems with depression, she said. Jenn must take two pills every day to deal with the depression caused by drug abuse.

"I have to be on anti-depressants forever," she explained. "I can't remember things as well as I used to."

Jenn doesn't like to hold long conversations with anyone because it's difficult to remember details. At 16, cognitively she is just now experiencing what an 11 or 12-year-old person would feel.

"I feel almost stupid," she said. "I don't learn as fast now. It takes a long time to learn things and I'm mad because it took lots of brain cells away that I can't get back."

When she was abusing drugs she would take prescription pills and methamphetamine and stay up for a week at a time and she nearly got to the point of injecting the drug into her system, she continued.

Her mom found the needles she was going to use to inject the drug and threw them away.

Jenn is living with her mother full-time now following the ordeal.

"She's upset that I have to be on anti-depressants," Jenn explained. "She wishes she would have stepped in and done something."

Abby, who overdosed on fentanyl patches last summer and died three times before finally being revived, is also currently living with her mother and stepfather. Things are going well between herself and her family, although she no longer speaks to her biological father.

Abby is trying to stay as active as she can and as far away from drugs as possible. She's playing sports and trying to get her grades up.

However, Abby said she also has problems remembering things and it's difficult to get up and be active as her air capacity has diminished.

Abby is also still on probation for her drug charges. She must perform community service and if she doesn't finish, she will be sent away to a rehabilitation program.

"There isn't a lot of trust for me with a lot of people," Abby continued.

Abby is determined to succeed, though.

"I have drive, I stick my mind to something and I've made a promise to myself," she added.

In Lincoln County, the abuse of prescription drugs is primarily designated to individuals in their late teens to 30s, White said.

"People are experimenting earlier," White continued. "They have a tendency to get into the harder stuff. Meth use has dropped a little and I think that's because of the [Montana Meth Project] ads. Meth is getting known as a dirty drug."

Prescription drug abuse is a big issue at the moment, White explained. Lincoln County is in a prime location for drug trafficking. Many drugs come through the area on the way to Flathead County from Spokane, Wash. Drugs will go to Flathead County and into Great Falls, White added. White also discusses drug trafficking and abuse with Canada/U.S. border patrol officers and informs them of what to be looking for.

"Those who are using are more heavily addicted," White said. "They get the majority of [drugs] through doctors and then sell them."

Prescription drugs are seen as safer among users, White continued. Because they are administered by doctors and manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, it is believed the drugs won't be as harmful.

"The drugs are seen as mild," White explained. "But they are just as bad or worse. Oxycontin, oxycodone and methadone are all opioids and they are along the same lines as heroin. They are highly addictive drugs."

In addition to ingesting the drug by swallowing them, drug users are now crushing the drug, mixing it with water and shooting it into their veins as a way to get it into their body more quickly, White explained. This adds to the large percentage of Hepatitis C and HIV cases in Lincoln County, White said.

"The dangers are tenfold," White explained. "I don't think everyone understands how dangerous this is. This is also dangerous to the community. We see thefts from homes and vehicles of pills and we also have many false reports of pill thefts on a daily basis.

"The string of burglaries [in Lincoln County] were related to drug use," White explained.

There is no immediate end in sight for the prescription drug problem.

"The prescription drug problem will get worse before it gets better," White said. "It starts off as a recreational thing for younger kids at parties and then becomes an addiction."

Jenn and Abby suggest early education and communication are the keys to combating the problem.

When Abby was growing up in the school system there were discussions about drugs, but "they didn't talk about the dangers of drugs, they just said don't do drugs," she said.

Parents should avoid sneaking through their children's belongings and don't yell at them either, but have open, honest dialogue, Jenn suggests. She also doesn't think many kids would listen to teachers about drug abuse, but they would likely be more receptive to counselors. Targeting fifth- and sixth-grade students would be a good age to discuss drug abuse, she said.

Also, parents should be paying attention to who their kids are hanging out with, Jenn explained. She also said having more youth activities or an arcade of some sort that would bring kids together would help combat the drug problem.

"Parents should keep a better eye on their kids," Abby said. "Try to keep involved with them and do stuff with them. If they go to a friend's house, make sure you know what they're doing."

Jenn estimated that approximately 80 percent of high school-age kids are using drugs.

"Now kids I never thought would use [drugs] are using," Jenn admitted. "I don't regret my old lifestyle, I don't want to go back and I don't miss it. I don't feel guilty or ashamed, because I learned from it."