Story On Alaska's Severe Drug Crisis – In Cities & Rural Communities – Hits USA Today In October
USA Today Runs A Story On October 8, 2023 Detailing Alaska's Serious Drug Overdosing Crisis Story Was Written By The Pulitzer Prize-Wi...
USA Today Runs A Story On October 8, 2023 Detailing Alaska's Serious Drug Overdosing Crisis
Story Was Written By The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Louisville Courier In Kentucky Which Sent Reporters To Alaska
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| Fentanyl & Drug Overdosing Has Been A Problem For Years. Alaska's Free-Distribution Spanish Language Newspaper Described The Crisis In May, 2023 – In Both Spanish & English. The Paper's Name Means "Midnight Sun." |
Rural Areas Are A Special Target For Drug Dealers
People who live in rural Alaska (including the Copper River Valley) want to feel that this is a safe space. They want to feel that the troubles and crimes of America can't touch us, back here behind the high mountain ranges of Alaska.
That's not true. In the Copper Valley – and Alaska as a whole – dangerous drugs are known to be making heavy inroads.
One early and definitive indicator of the plague of heavy drugs in our region emerged in August, 2021, when the Copper River Native Association expanded its community programs. CRNA has traditionally been involved with dispensing food, dental care, social and medical services; that kind of thing.
But something terrible was now happening, that went well beyond the norm: Drug overdosing.
Families needed armor. Both CRNA and Cross Road began dispensing families a nasal spray called NARCAN that they could administer to their loved ones who are incapacitated and about to die from what almost seemed unthinkable: lethal, killing drugs that need to be immediately reversed if your child, your sister or brother, or your friend is to survive another day.
It's a horrifying responsibility.
SEE 2021 JOURNAL STORY ABOUT NARCAN IN THE VALLEY HERE:
Drug Abuse, Overdosing & Deaths Are Rampant In Alaska
On October 8th, 2023, USA Today released a story about the extent to which rural Alaska is now being targeted by drug cartels. Fentanyl, which kills even in tiny amounts, and other illegal drugs are coming in through Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau.
They're spreading throughout the state, to tiny towns and villages everywhere. Alaska is a fertile field for the drug cartels. The Troopers are few and far between, especially in the villages. Small planes are everywhere, and unregulated. They can carry drugs into the smallest and remotest of Bush villages.
Alaska already suffers from so many problems, due to its huge size, its isolation, along with rampant social and economic problems. Yet our state experienced the United States' largest percentage increase in deaths due to overdoses in 2021.
It seems as if drug overdosing and trafficking just can't be a daily part of small town Alaskan life. But it is. Drugs are being peddled and consumed everywhere. In Girdwood, in the Mat-Su, in Barrow, and even in that single old World War II building that's known as "Whittier."
SEE 2022 JOURNAL STORY ABOUT STATEWIDE DRUG BUST HERE:
