City supports HUNT with officer
The city of Rogers City will commit an officer to the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team, with the county agreeing to pay for the city?s cost for overtime as the RCPD covers shifts and maintains its current 24-hour service to the city. Chief Matt Quaine, speaking at last Friday?s Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners meeting, said his department had never been in a position to supply an officer to HUNT.
?It?s a commitment that all of the officers have made because they wholeheartedly believe in HUNT,? Quaine said. ?I feel right now we are in a position to do that,? said Quaine. ?We?re not going to replace the officer. We?re going to run short.?
The county would allocate $11,000 to HUNT, with the city being reimbursed from the drug team, which not only serves Presque Isle County, but Alcona, Montmorency, and Alpena County as well.
THE COMMISSIONERS may have been swayed to increase their contribution after hearing a presentation from Alcona County prosecutor Tom Weichel, who has served as chairman of the HUNT board for 11 years. Weichel talked about the increasing drug problem in northeast Michigan, the volatile funding situation with Montmorency and Alpena County not providing assistance, and the additional lives that would be destroyed if the HUNT team were no longer in existence.
?Why am I pushing so hard?? asked Weichel. ?Why do I come to townships? Why do I come up here to Presque Isle County? ?I think the answer is fairly simple. My major reasons are…children,? he said. ?They are our future. We live in northeast Michigan for a reason, because we want to be able to raise our children in fairly safe environments.? With the threat of more and more drugs coming into the area, that way of life is threatened, he said.
SINCE JANUARY, 19 controlled buys of heroin have been made in northeast Michigan and Cheboygan County is currently prosecuting a number of individuals for delivery of heroin. Weichel said one individual was pulled over for a traffic stop and officers found 11 bindles of heroin in his wife?s purse.
Members of HUNT have determined the increase in heroin activity is based on the price of the pain killer Oxycontin, which costs $30 to $40 a pill. ?I happened to be part of an interview on an individual who had pulled a shotgun on his mother. He?s 22 years old and was holding his mom at bay with a shotgun, coming down from a heroin high,? said Weichel. ?We asked him why heroin. He said because Oxycontin is too expensive. ?I can?t afford Oxycontin, it?s getting harder and harder to obtain.? So he turned to heroin, and now he?s a junkie,? said Weichel. Prosecutor Don McLennan told the commissioners of the addictive nature of Oxycontin.
A woman was melting Oxycontin on spoons in Presque Isle County and injecting it into her body. McLennan said protective services became involved and the woman was given the option of getting off the drug or losing her child. ?She chose the Oxy,? said McLennan.
THERE HAS been a dramatic increase in what Weichel calls ?terrorist drugs.? ?Citizens up here buying heroin are supporting the same people that took out the Twin Towers on 9/11. I never thought I would have to say that,? said Weichel. ?We know we can?t stop the problem we have. But if our drug team doesn?t continue…we are going to have more problems that I don?t want to even think about,? said Weichel, who displayed several photographs with a projection system. The pictures were the bedrooms of children where drug seizures took place in Alcona and Alpena County. The rooms were similar in that they contained dirty dishes, fast-food wrappers, and a layer of clothing covering the f
?THAT CUT out piece in the floor is where she hid her drugs?? Weichel pointed out. ?You don?t think those kids knew they were there.? In one case children were removed from the home and the county had to pay for the placement, which cost $70,000. ?I?ve been blessed with four beautiful children,? said commissioner Mike Darga. ?You take a picture like that…it puts a little lump in your throat. We have to keep a handle on it. I?m strongly in favor of this $11,000.? The vote by the commissioners was unanimous.
?Any assistance we receive for HUNT, I can?t tell you how much I appreciate it,? said Weichel. ?When I look at stuff like this, how children are forced to live, because the parent?s boyfriend is out trying to figure out where their next high is coming from…that?s why I push so hard for this. I don?t want to see this get out of hand.?