By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Officials with the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force are continuing to fight the war against a growing drug problem.
Captain Shawn Collie with the strike force says they are seeing the continuing problem of fentanyl in the county, but are also seeing more problems with meth.
"And we're seeing it in quantities that we've never seen before," Collie tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "You know, five or ten years ago getting smaller amounts, user amounts, or a dealer may have up to an ounce or a couple of ounces, now we're seeing people on a daily basis with pounds or kilos."
Collie says a lot of that has to do with issues with the borders and how easy it is for the supply to get into the United States.
Collie says now it's becoming easier and less expensive for drug dealers to have their supply shipped in.
"You know when I first started in this area in the late 90's, meth labs were it seemed like every other day or something weekly that we dealt with," Collie explains. "And then as time went on and what we see now is that 99% of the drugs we deal with are being imported into our communities."
Collie says a majority of the supply is coming in from the southern border and being streamlined into the county.
Collie says with the drug problem ever growing there are even new drugs popping up.
"You'll see stuff here even in St. Joe where they're putting stuff out that may or may not be tested or approved by the FDA," Collie says. "Kratom is a big thing that we see and hear about and it depends on who you talk to for what effect it has on people, it's not banned."
Collie says they have worked with the city though to place an ordinance on this new drug where people have to be at least 18 years old for it.