Ending the drug crisis is a top priority, said U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session. He told a gathering in Billings the directive comes from the President.
He told a group of just over 80 invited guests in Billings the day he was sworn in as attorney general President Donald Trump sent him an Executive Order directing the Department of Justice to reduce crime in America.
“That what he sent me there to do,” he said. “And we at the Department of Justice embrace that goal.”
The audience was made up of law enforcement, treatment and health care providers, judges, and a few elected officials.
He said it’s not a coincidence violent crime and the drug crisis are both on the rise.
“If you want to collect a drug debt, you collect it with a barrel of a gun. You can’t go to court and file a lawsuit,” Sessions said. “Surely as night follows day violence and death follow drug trafficking.”
Sessions said he was told by officials in the West the biggest issue they face is methamphetamine. He cited figures from the Montana Department of Justice that meth violations in the state rose by more than 400% between 2010-to-2015.
Sessions delivered his remarks at Rimrock Foundation, a substance abuse treatment facility in Billings.
RN Lenette Kosovich is Rimrock’s CEO. She spent time before the speech with Sessions. Along with a few others, they described the impact of meth in Montana.
“We see everything from CPS (Child Protective Services) involvement, to our high rates of suicide, our high numbers of DUIs, the high number of crime and theft, violent crime is ticking up, just like he mentioned,” she said. “And we ourselves see a direct correlation.”
Kosovich said substance abuse happens in communities large and small and she was please Sessions came to a rural states like Montana to learn more.
While meth and opioids were the focus of Sessions’ speech, she said there are other substances treatment providers have to address.
“Alcohol will always win in Montana. And part of that is it’s been socially acceptable in a lot of places,” she said. “And meth is outranking opioids in our experience in treatment right now, but we are seeing the opioid uptick and with that we see the heroin uptick. We also see a high number of marijuana users.”
“So in our statistics we see alcohol number 1, marijuana number 2, meth 3rd, and opioids 4th,” said Kosovich.
Kosovich said the stakeholders gathered to hear Sessions speak will be the group tasked tasked with the next steps.
Sessions says the centerpiece of the administration’s strategy is called Project Safe Neighborhoods.
And the U.S. Attorney for Montana Kurt Alme called a press conference Monday in Billings to announce details of that initiative in Montana.