Montana drug users managing to avoid serious jail time

Laws in Montana are managing to let drug users avoid serious jail sentences, Tri-Agency Task Force supervisor C.J. Reichelt said Friday.

Reichelt was speaking about drug issues facing the Hi-Line at the monthly North Central Pachyderm Club meeting at the Duck Inn Vineyard Room.

“A first offender could end up with a two- to three-year sentence but could be deferred and end up with just probation,” Reichelt said. “Those who have had three to five offenses could end up just in a rehab program.”

“It’s become too expensive to keep people in prison,” Reichelt added.

He said the task force also is seeing shifts in usage to new drugs.

“We are seeing a move from semi-synthetic drugs to synthetic drugs,” Reichelt said.

As the task force tries to combat the drugs that come into the Hi-Line, the drug of choice is shifting from heroin and methampetamine to fentanyl, Reichelt said. Heroin has become harder to get while Fentanyl can be made in a person’s basement or garage. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times stronger than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was developed for pain management treatment of cancer patients, applied in a patch on the skin. Most fentanyl is being produced in China, while Mexico is producing some that is not as potent as China’s version.

Fentanyl is expected to take over as the main drug by 2025 with 96,000 overdoses by then, Reichelt said. The task force recently conducted an operation that resulted in three people being indicted on drug charges, including two from Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and one from Los Angeles. The person from L.A. would fly in the drugs, hidden in his own medication bottles, and then distribute them on Rocky Boy. They managed to catch up to the man from L.A. and arrested him. While arresting him, they found him with $22,500.

The task force is still seeing a problem with marijuana, he said. People are visiting places where marijuana is legal and bringing it back to Montana. The drugs are being used by college students and being sold to kids.

He said the task force also is trying to deal with reductions in funding. Federal grants for the task force have continued to decrease over time, making them rely on forfeiture seizures, Reichelt said. Any funds seized will be distributed between agencies, based on how much they were involved in the case.