{"id":34296,"date":"2015-10-05T18:28:29","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/anchorage-requests-federal-help-to-stop-spice-crisis\/"},"modified":"2015-10-05T18:28:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:28:29","slug":"anchorage-requests-federal-help-to-stop-spice-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/anchorage-requests-federal-help-to-stop-spice-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchorage requests federal help to stop Spice crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE<\/strong> \u2014 Andre Boyd, a monitor at the nonprofit Bean\u2019s Cafe, said he always calls 911 if he sees someone\u2019s eyes roll back into their head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who walk away, they\u2019re the lucky ones,\u201d executive director Lisa Sauder told the Alaska Dispatch News as she and Boyd watched paramedics treat two men they said smoked the synthetic drug Spice outside their cafe.<\/p>\n

Anchorage emergency workers say they have noticed a dramatic spike in the number of medical emergencies related to Spice since mid-summer, and the problem has become so widespread that the city is asking for help from federal authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnecdotally, we see much more Spice now than meth and heroin combined,\u201d said Erich Scheunemann, assistant chief of emergency medical service operations at the Anchorage Fire Department.<\/p>\n

Suspected Spice use accounted for 10 percent of all the department\u2019s emergency transports between July 18 and Sept. 27, and three-quarters of the calls came from downtown, according to data provided by Scheunemann.<\/p>\n

In the emergency room, the number of Spice emergencies varies day to day — from a slow trickle of cases to deluge of patients the next day, according to Alaska regional Hospital ER physician and chief medical officer David Cadogan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve seen anything like this,\u201d he said. \u201cOne evening we had, I think, six patients within an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Symptoms of spice use can fall across a spectrum, Cadogan explained. Patients might arrive heavily sedated and unresponsive or they could show up combative and agitated.<\/p>\n

He said the homeless population has been disproportionately affected by Spice — something Boyd, the Bean\u2019s Cafe worker, attributed to cost. Boyd said the drug sells for only $5 to $10 per cigarette-like \u201cstick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saunder, the Bean\u2019s director, called the situation \u201cheartbreaking\u201d and said it\u2019s diverting funds from other programs. She wants to see more detox and treatment options for people using Spice and \u201csome teeth to the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

But police say they have little power to stem the sale and use of the drug.<\/p>\n

Possessing and selling the drug is not a crime, only a civil violation punishable by a $500 fine. It\u2019s difficult to outlaw because the chemical compounds in the drug can be easily changed to create new, legal varieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s enough of a public safety issue that we are diverting patrol services,\u201d said acting deputy chief of police Gary Gilliam. He said the department has reassigned two officers to work with undercover detectives on the Spice issue.<\/p>\n

The city is considering strengthening the law, possibly by making sale and use of Spice a crime rather than a ticketed offense. City prosecutor Seneca Theno said other states have found a way create laws that cover a broad spectrum of synthetic drugs.<\/p>\n

She said the city also reached out to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in late August and thinks the federal government might have more power to go after Spice. But it\u2019s not clear yet if federal agencies will intervene.<\/p>\n

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has also proposed a budget increase for police and fire departments and hired a homeless coordinator, Nancy Burke.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Health and Social Services is analyzing the problem, but had little new information on its investigation since asked in mid-August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 Andre Boyd, a monitor at the nonprofit Bean\u2019s Cafe, said he always calls 911 if he sees someone\u2019s eyes roll back into their head. \u201cThe people who walk away, they\u2019re the lucky ones,\u201d executive director Lisa Sauder told the Alaska Dispatch News<\/a> as she and Boyd watched paramedics treat two men they said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-34296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34296"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}