Many concerned parents and a few students came to Austin High School’s Knowlton Auditorium Thursday night to listen to recovering addict stories, statistics and plans on Austin’s drug problems.

The program called “Wake Up Austin” was the first of several planned forums hosted by Circle of Hope to identify local drug issues and how drug culture has changed.

“The drugs of today aren’t like in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” Austin High School REACH Advisor Thor Bergland said. “Things have dramatically changed and I think that’s one of the most important things that hopefully we get to learn tonight.”

Bergland stressed the importance of having experts in the community and for residents to stop being victims to drugs. He also added when he started as a health counselor at the high school, the drug culture was different, but now the trends have changed.

“What we know is drug trends change and the drug trend is ahead of us. We have to catch up and get ahead of it,” Bergland said. “[We’re] trying to make people aware, what to do and how we get ahead of it.”

Bergland, who admitted he went through a treatment program for drug use, said his best friend died at age 31.

“I’m still paying consequences for my choices, my decisions, [and] I’ve been 13 years out of the game,” Bergland said. “I went to his parents and told them, ‘I’m sorry for what I did.’ … It’s our responsibility to deal with this.”

Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen said she didn’t expect to ever experience a drug problem close to her, but 15 years ago her cousin tried heroin and overdosed, resulting in a death. After that, she thought she would never deal with drugs again, but now she works with them every day, she said.

“My office is tapped out right now,” she said. “We don’t have room for anymore cases but they’re coming. For the first time … in this county, we have two cases for people [who] have been accused of selling people drugs that killed them.”

“We are at a serious point, and it requires serious attention,” she added.

Nelsen said it can happen in any house, any family, any economic status or to any race.

She added if people do know someone who is involved with drugs and in the court system, sometimes it’s not better to bail them out right away.

“We’ve got some people right now, who are sitting in jail, who actually need to sit there,” Nelsen said. “The basic fact for some of these heroin users, that’s the only night their parents know they’re alive. Those are the nights we can let them sit, let them get sober and get them into treatment.”

Though Nelsen said they have more failures than successes right now, she told the audience they will keep trying and learning about heroin and other drugs.

“And realize this too, it can happen in your family,” Nelsen said.

A Circle of Hope

Chris Lukes, co-founder of Circle of Hope, said they are a support group for family members that have loved ones addicted to drugs and alcohol.

“We’re all bound by our children, our grandchildren, sometimes it’s parents that are using drugs or alcohol,” Lukes said. “We’re leaning on each other. I don’t know where I would be without it.”

She said the parents and grandparents she’s met through the group have helped her a lot in the last 15 months.

“We’re trying to make a difference [and] bring awareness to our community,” Lukes said. “These people that we love that have chosen a path that we just have no control over, we don’t know where else to turn.”

Lukes has lived in Austin all her life and said the drug problem is unlike anything she’s ever seen. her best friend lost her son, Jordon Jensen, to a drug overdose on March 27.

“I promised her that day that I would be by her side to make a difference and to keep his memory alive by helping bring awareness and trying to prevent this from happening to other families and other children,” Lukes said. “It affects everybody. It’s not just kids.”

She said her neighbor broke her hip a few years ago and was given a prescription for oxycodin and briefly became dependent before her husband and doctor helped wean her from the drugs.

“I just want people to know there are things out there that are hurting our families,” Lukes said. “Please keep an eye on your [medicine] cabinets, spices, spray paints, cough medicines. It’s things you would never expect.”

Lukes said she’s been wanting to do a presentation like this since last fall and had to fight to get to last night’s event.

“I’m so glad I did,” Lukes said. “One life saved is worth everything to me.”

Circle of Hope meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month at Our Saviors Lutheran Church. The group started about a year ago with three people and now they are up to nearly 40 members.

New drug trends

Austin police Capt. Dave McKichan has worked for 19 years on the police department and worked many nights seeing people under the influence, but he said alcohol was and still is the biggest drug.

Meth and heroin became more prevalent after 2000, when meth labs started popping up, though information traveled slower about how to make meth. Meth labs came from the south and Iowa was hit first by meth labs and then Austin was hit, being a border community.

“We had several cases including the first case that a homicide was charged, due to a gentleman dying in a meth lab explosion in Austin,” McKichan said.

Then the drug taskforce started. One early accomplishment was working to get meth ingredients like Pseudoephedrine by making them over-the-counter drugs. Since then, meth labs are still in existence, but it’s more rare to see them, he said.

“Unfortunately, the cartels … figured out how to produce it in mass quantities, and outside of marijuana, meth is the hard drug we see and deal with the most in Austin,” McKichan said.

He added heroin use and production ramped up after 2010.

A frustrating system

During a question and answer session, parents expressed frustration at the criminal justice and court systems and what was being done in schools to educate children about drugs.

One parent said her kids, middle school, high school age and graduating senior, openly told her where they know they would be able to buy drugs and asked why more couldn’t be done to get those kids off the streets and stop selling.

Becky Rasmussen of the Parenting Resource Center said they are working on a five-year grant to add a planning and implementation coordinator in the schools to address drug use with students in seventh to 12th grades.

“It doesn’t mean it’s going to fix our problem, it means it’s going to raise a whole lot more awareness,” Rasmussen said.

Another resident expressed concern about the younger generation in Austin and how they were being affected by drug use, and she said her family has found needles in parks.

“It’s not just the people that are addicted. What about the littlest victims?” she said. “They can’t go to the parks. We find needles in parks.”

McKichan said if needles are found near parks, people can contact the police department through the tip line, Tip411, or call dispatch at 507-437-9400. Hepatitis C and other infectious diseases can be passed through sharing needles, he added.

A recovering addict from the audience said unless the addict is in recovery, they won’t openly admit they are using and asked if something could be done to address sellers.

McKichan noted law enforcement often know what’s going on and who is committing crimes, but they have to build a case before arrests can be made, which can sometimes be frustrating.

He said they follow up on tips received on the Tip411 line, but it’s a process to work toward building a case to charge a person in court.

McKichan said that’s where the community comes in.

“We need help,” McKichan said.