Schuyler official: 'Drugs a huge problem'

SCHUYLER COUNTY--Illegal drug use has become a tremendous problem in Schuyler County, and its impact has gotten worse in recent years, according to District Attorney Joseph Fazzary.
In 2014, the county had a total of 15 drug-related felony cases, and in 2015, that had grown to a total of 27 drug-related felony cases, he said during a planning retreat on Nov. 14 hosted by the Schuyler County Coalition on Underage Drinking and Drugs.
As of the middle of November this year, the county has had 51 methamphetamine sales, manufacture or possession cases, two heroin sale cases, one heroin possession case, one crack cocaine possession case and one marijuana possession case, all felonies, Fazzary said.
"I'm only talking about the felony cases," he said. "It would take days and days to go through the misdemeanor cases."
Also this year, a passenger was significantly injured in a second-degree assault case where a driver crashed a car while high on methamphetamine, marijuana and alcohol, he said. There were also two burglary cases with 16 or 17 charges based on heroin addiction, plus numerous violations of probation, he said.
"By my calculations, and this is probably [an] under-calculation, we've had 70 to 80 reported solved felony crimes related to illegal drugs this year. As you can see, we are doubling, tripling, quadrupling our numbers, and we're not done," Fazzary said. "To say the least, this is a huge, huge problem."
Casey Allen, project coordinator for the coalition, said Fazzary started his talk by saying Schuyler is a safe county because it doesn't have a lot of crime.
"However, we do have drug crime," she said, adding that he mentioned all the drugs he's seen in the county. Those have included heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and synthetic marijuana, LSD, mushrooms, bath salts and abuse of prescription pills such as Oxycontin and Percoset.
"We have drug issues in Schuyler County. Now we really have to figure out how to deal with them," Allen said. "There's a whole lot of questions as to how we deal with the drug problem in Schuyler County."
The coalition is focused on alcohol, tobacco and recently changed from a focus on marijuana to prescription pain relievers and heroin, she said, noting the executive board believes those are the biggest problems in the county.
The 10-year-old coalition has been working on attacking these issues, Allen said. Last year, it did a bunch of forums informing people about alcohol and methamphetamine, she said. "We're going to continue with that kind of stuff."
An action plan for a third and fourth year was approved at a meeting Nov. 14 so the coalition can move forward to try to combat some of those issues in the county, she said.
Also during the planning retreat, Schuyler Teens against Alcohol, Nicotine and other Drugs (STAND) made a presentation on over-the-counter medication safety.