U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Meets With Montana Families, Asks For Media's Help
Family Summit highlights need to raise awareness about how fentanyl affects individuals, families and communities
By Denise Rivette
The Family Summit
Last Wednesday, representatives from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Rocky Mountain Field Division (covering Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming), in conjunction with U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, hosted a Family Summit in Billings to support Montanans who have lost loved ones to the drug overdose epidemic. This was the second summit to be held in Montana in two years.
Over a dozen families from across Montana attended the gathering where they learned what local, state, and federal leaders are doing to combat the drug crisis plaguing Montana communities. About half the families in attendance this year also attended last year’s summit. The families had the opportunity to share their thoughts with officials on how fentanyl is impacting Montana communities and what prevention, education, treatment, and enforcement efforts could help fight the epidemic.
“I’m thankful to the families who shared their stories today. I will continue to do everything I can as attorney general to combat the drug crisis in Montana for the parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends who have lost a loved one to an overdose, and to keep it from happening to anyone else,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “These conversations are hard to have, but what we learned today can help us develop solutions to help keep drugs off the street and ultimately save lives.”
DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge (SAC) David Olesky added, “The most recent numbers from the CDC reveal an estimated 112,323 Americans died due to a drug overdose or poisoning for the 12-months ending June 2023, and the State of Montana has not been immune from this national epidemic. This is our second Family Summit here in Montana. It is an opportunity for those of us in law enforcement to hear from the families who have most felt the pain of this epidemic and to let them know that they and their loved ones are not forgotten.”
U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich reflected, “I am grateful to the families who courageously shared their deeply personal stories of losing a loved one to a drug overdose and how the scourge of fentanyl has affected their lives. Our office continues to prioritize pursuing and prosecuting drug traffickers who are bringing this poison into our communities and to our Indian Reservations, and while we have had recent success with those efforts, our work continues. The families we met with today deserve nothing less.”
Knudsen’s office reported that during the Summit, the families heard from narcotics officers and officials from the Montana Department of Justice, prosecutors, as well as prevention and advocacy experts. The discussions centered around ways to increase awareness around the dangers associated with fentanyl and what is being done to stop the fentanyl overdose crisis.
The Media Dialogue
The day after the Family Summit, the local DEA and Rocky Mountain Field Division teams invited members of the Montana press to their Billings District Office for an informal briefing. Information from Wednesday’s Family Summit was intertwined with the off-the-record presentation and discussion. The purpose of the briefing was to provide background for future reporting and to develop working relationships in an effort to better educate the public and raise awareness about the drugs circulating in our communities and the efforts being made to combat them. Topics covered included trafficking, money laundering, DEA structure and operations, how the DEA interact with their international counterparts, drug diversion, fentanyl manufacturing facilities (picture an unkempt garage, not a laboratory), cartels operating in our state, and the bad actors waiting in the wings. The agents made themselves available afterwards for formal interviews and informal discussions.
About the DEA
Agents in attendance emphasized that DEA stands for Drug Enforcement Administration NOT agency. After learning more about them, I thought understood their semi-joking plea to use the proper word. With their limited manpower (given the scope of their mission), they take great pride in working with agencies and individuals on all levels of government in the United States and around the globe. Even where everybody is operating under similar laws, it takes an efficient and effective administration to coordinate national operations in a way that fosters relationships with local and state law enforcement as well as building an environment where organizations working in tandem can efficiently join forces when needed. In addition, they seem to have developed a culture of intelligence, cooperation and vigilance in their Administration while establishing a global web of relationships domestically and internationally that allows the Administration to conduct operations effectively across borders and over seas.
While all of the above is true, upon further investigation, there are important differences between an agency and an administration. Agencies operate as an “agent” of the government. An administration is run by officials who follow laws and rules to drive their decisions, and so “administer” the law. Any way you look at it, it’s the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Drugs in Carbon County
I took the opportunity to sit down with Resident Agent in Charge Cesar Avila and ask him about the situation in Carbon County. He confirmed that Carbon County remains what they consider a pass-through county, meaning that drug trafficking activity is primarily limited to the use of our county highways to transport contraband to and from Billings. This means that, while the average citizen may be at low risk of being affected by drug trafficking activity, our law enforcement officers are at heightened risk every time they make a traffic stop. In 2021, across America, the DEA reported 30% more drug seizures that included firearms than in 2019 (a 15% average annual increase). Through the first half of 2021, law enforcement in Montana had already seized 308 weapons associated with drug arrests, 82 percent of the previous year’s 375 total, putting Montana on track to have a 64.3% increase in just one year. During the briefing all the agents agreed that this is a continuing and troubling trend.
Avila stated that, despite recent high profile trafficking cases on Montana’s Indian Reservations, most drugs entering Carbon County for consumption are acquired in Billings, where users find drugs are less expensive and easier to access. The same national and state upward trend in usage, overdoses and drug seizures is being seen in Carbon County according to Carbon County Sheriff and Coroner Josh McQuillan.
During the briefing, SAC Olesky received word that a traffic stop in Laurel had just resulted in the seizure of 1,000 fentanyl pills. According to information learned in the briefing, the cost to manufacture 1,000 pills is approximately 2 cents per pill, or $20. The street value in Montana for those 1,000 pills can be as high as $60,000-$80,000.
700 of those pills are expected to contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.
According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 1.0% of Americans 12 and over qualify as having an opioid use disorder. Applied to Carbon County’s population of 11,419, that means that at any point in time over 100 county residents can be anticipated to have an opioid use disorder that, if not treated, has led to or will lead to illegal street drug use and/or death.
Little baggies of those pills end up in Carbon County on a daily basis.
Drug overdose deaths increased 30 percent in the United States from 2019 to 2020, according to the CDC, and are now a leading cause of death for young adults. The rate of overdose deaths increased 49 percent among Native American people ages 25 to 44 years old. As SAC Olesky stated, “112,323 Americans died due to a drug overdose or poisoning for the 12-months ending June 2023.” At this rate the country is losing a population about the size of Billings every year to drugs. Fentanyl is the primary driver of those increases. In 2000, the number of deaths attributed to drug overdose or poisoning was 17,500. Since 2000, the annual number of overdose deaths has increased 541.85%.
According to the Montana Attorney General’s office, fentanyl-linked deaths continue to trend upward in Montana. The State Crime Lab has preliminarily reported 80 overdose deaths involving fentanyl in 2023 – an increase of 1,900 percent from 2017 when there were just four. This number does not reflect the entire statewide total because the crime lab only verifies deaths that involve an autopsy.
More fentanyl than ever before is being seized off the streets across the country. In Montana alone, the DEA announced that more than 398,000 doses of fentanyl were seized in 2023. That’s a 111 percent increase from 2022 and a nearly 600 percent increase from 2021.
Fatalities are expected to increase as the most recent analysis shows that 7 out of every 10 fentanyl pills on the street contain a lethal dose of the drug. That means up to 278,600 of the doses that didn’t make it onto Montana’s streets last year contained a lethal dose. We don’t know how many made it onto our streets. A lethal dose is 2 mg, the amount that can kill someone who has not built up a tolerance for the drug. An insidious feature of fentanyl is that the human body continues to build up a tolerance as long as the drug is used. While an habitual user may take a dose of 20 or 50 pills from a batch just so they don’t feel sick, just one pill from that same batch may kill a first time user. We have to fight this epidemic from all sides: stopping drugs from entering our communities, helping those with addictions recover, and providing the education and support our children need to avoid becoming victims of the scourge of addiction.
One pill can kill. One talk can make them balk.
It doesn’t have to rhyme, they just need your time. Visit the DEA’s website for resources that can help parents and caregivers talk to kids about the dangers of drug use or visit the Get Smart About Drugs website.
Visit DEA’s Recovery Resources page for a list of resources to help with substance use or mental health disorders.
Reminder
Naloxone: It’s Free and It Saves Lives
In 2017 the Montana State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 333, the Help Save Lives from Overdose Act, with the stated purpose of saving “the lives of persons who have experienced an opioid-related drug overdose by providing the broadest possible access to life saving opioid antagonist medication.” The act directs DPHHS to increase the availability and distribution of naloxone (brand name Narcan) through a statewide standing order. Each year the governor issues a new order essentially giving every Montanan a standing prescription for naloxone and may receive free naloxone from the State of Montana via an authorized distributor.
There are currently no authorized distributors in Carbon County; however, Open Aid Alliance in Missoula will mail a box of your choice of intranasal (nasal spray) or intramuscular (injected with a needle into the muscle) Narcan to your home after watching a very brief instructional video and passing a four-question test. It comes packaged in a manila envelope with nothing on the outside to indicate the contents. You can order yours or get more information at: OpenAidAlliance.org/savealife.
Medical experts encourage people and businesses to carry naloxone. It is easy to administer and causes no known harm if administered to people who are not overdosing on opioids. Montana’s Good Samaritan Law provides legal protection to those who administer naloxone.