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Business as unusual: Nigerian fresh from Wisconsin comes to Wilkes

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Our Opinion: In quest to raise high school graduation rates, don’t shortchange students

<p>Luzerne County Councilman Robert Schnee said &#8220;something&#8217;s got to change&#8221; to rein in a drug problem that&#8217;s caused a record number of overdose deaths in the county.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just accepting this in Luzerne County. Luzerne County&#8217;s a heroin haven,&#8221; Schnee said during the district attorney&#8217;s budget presentation Tuesday. &#8220;We can&#8217;t let this go any further. We keep turning our heads.&#8221;</p><p>Councilwoman Kathy Dobash told county District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis heroin has &#8220;taken over&#8221; Hazleton, where she was born and raised, and the entire county, in part because the drug is sold cheap and the region has easy transport access close to major highways.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see it getting better, Stefanie. I wouldn&#8217;t want your job,&#8221; Dobash said. &#8220;To see my hometown ripped apart like that, it&#8217;s been devastating to witness.&#8221;</p><p>A crackdown on dealers is underway but will require the council to fund a new $58,500 deputy district attorney position in 2017, Salavantis told the council.</p><p>The new attorney would work closely with the drug task force coordinator to identify &#8220;high drug trafficking areas&#8221; and build prosecution cases from scratch, targeting the &#8220;expanding number of criminal organizations that have taken over some of our communities,&#8221; she wrote in a budgetary request.</p><p>Salavantis assumed control of the task force from the state attorney general&#8217;s office in August, predicting local oversight of this coalition of local law enforcement agencies focused on narcotics-related investigations would bolster efforts to combat illegal drug activity.</p><p>A &#8220;large number&#8221; of new cases are expected due to the task force takeover, and it would be &#8220;almost impossible&#8221; for existing prosecutors to handle additional work on top of their current caseloads, she said. The office also lost several very experienced prosecutors who obtained higher-paying employment, she said.</p><p>&#8220;I ask the county council&#8217;s support and assistance in working to clean up our streets and try to rid our neighborhoods of the plague of illegal drug activity,&#8221; she said in her request.</p><p>The council must adopt a 2017 budget by Dec. 15. Citing rising expenses and service needs, county Manager C. David Pedri&#8217;s proposed budget includes a 4 percent tax hike, a new $5 vehicle registration fee and permanent elimination of a tax break for primary residences.</p><p>Councilman Harry Haas said he supports attacking the drug epidemic but asked Salavantis if municipalities benefiting from the stepped-up investigatory effort could help fund the cost of the new position.</p><p>Salavantis said municipalities don&#8217;t have the money and described her sadness listening to local crime watch group members who do not &#8220;know where to turn&#8221; addressing criminals selling drugs &#8220;on every corner.&#8221; The district attorney said her office is applying for all available grants and urging legislators to provide additional funding.</p><p>Schnee praised the district attorney&#8217;s work and said legislators should reprogram casino gambling revenue to fund more local police instead of other municipal and community projects.</p><p>Councilman Stephen A. Urban pointed to the county&#8217;s year-to-date record 114 confirmed overdose deaths, compared to a previous high of 95 deaths last year, and asked if any alleged drug suppliers will be charged with homicide.</p><p>More counties, including neighboring Columbia County, have been charging those accused of providing illegal drugs to overdose victims because state law was changed several years ago eliminating a requirement to prove alleged dealers had malicious intent.</p><p>The revised law says it&#8217;s a first-degree felony if someone intentionally &#8220;administers, dispenses, delivers, gives, prescribes, sells or distributes&#8221; a controlled substance or counterfeit controlled substance and another person dies as a result of using that substance.</p><p>&#8220;There are sellers out there that are selling this poison to people, and in some counties, the coroner has actually classified these deaths as homicides,&#8221; Urban said, adding that the coroner homicide ruling forces the district attorney&#8217;s office to investigate. &#8220;I think one way to clean up the drugs is to get rid of the dealers.&#8221;</p><p>Salavantis said she has notified law enforcement of two pending drug overdose deaths that may result in charges under this law if a solid case is developed. She said she also referred a case to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office that may lead to federal charges against someone who allegedly furnished drugs to someone who died.</p><p>&#8220;We are doing that,&#8221; she told Urban.</p><p>As part of that effort, Pedri said he has requested additional funding for the coroner&#8217;s office to perform more autopsies next year. His budget proposes $160,000 in 2017, compared to this year&#8217;s $110,000 allocation.</p><p>Additional autopsies will be necessary to charge drug suppliers, Salavantis said.</p><p>&#8220;I have constant communication with the coroner to make sure if we believe we will be investigating and potentially charging on a case, he will conduct the autopsy,&#8221; she said, emphasizing both she and the coroner also work with Pedri to document they aren&#8217;t unnecessarily &#8220;wasting money.&#8221;</p><p>Coroner William Lisman, who will present his budget next month, said Wednesday that autopsies are a crucial first step in these cases to &#8220;make the charges stick.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We won&#8217;t take advantage of a blank check and will be very cautious spending this money,&#8221; Lisman said.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre resident Eric Bieski told the council he&#8217;s active in the city&#8217;s crime watch group and was concerned because a police officer told him the best scenario was driving drug dealers out of the city if they could not be caught and charged. Communication and alerts about suspected dealers are needed between neighboring departments because the problem won&#8217;t be addressed if the criminals merely cross municipal lines, he said.</p><p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re really going to get serious about addressing this problem of drugs, we need communication across the board,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Additional regulations also are needed to stop physicians from unnecessarily prescribing drugs, he said.</p><p>&#8220;I sadly know too many people that have either committed suicide because of drugs or have overdosed. None of them have started by going right to heroin. They start with prescription pills, and these pills are coming from doctors,&#8221; Bieski said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Salavantis </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_salavantis_ebmeeting-1-1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Salavantis </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>DA seeks additional funding to fight drug epidemic</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Crackdown on drug dealers needed in Luzerne County, officials say