October 13, 2014 at 4:51 p.m.
Judges balance treatment, punishment in sentencing heroin defendants
By Jamie Taylor-jamie@rivernewsonline.com
In both counties, drug cases are investigated by the respective city police and sheriff's departments, as well as by members of the Northcentral Drug Enforcement Group (NORDEG).
Before becoming a judge in 2012, Bloom served as Oneida County district attorney from 2007 to 2012. Before that he was a staff attorney for the state public defender's office in Rhinelander from 1993-2002. and in private practice in Rhinelander between 2002 and 2007. Before he became a prosecutor, Bloom said he didn't think there was much of a heroin problem in Oneida County.
"I can't remember off the top of my head ever representing anyone on a heroin-related charge. So as far as I could tell, there was a relatively low level of criminal prosecution involving heroin. It was something that was around, but it wasn't something that was upfront on the radar screen during those years," he said.
Bloom said that when he became district attorney, one of the things he noticed wasn't so much heroin, but prescription drugs.
"That was a much more common type of prosecution then had been the case when I was a staff attorney with the public defender's office," he said. "There had been prescription drug-related prosecutions when I was a staff attorney with the public defender's office, but the volume of prescription drug use that appeared to be happening in Oneida County once I moved into the district attorney's office in 2007 appeared to be significantly greater. It was a much more common occurrence. Suspects would be arrested for this, that or the other thing and they would have a pill container in their pocket with a number of different pills."
Nielsen agrees the heroin problem grew out of the rampant abuse of prescription drugs.
"Yes, the significant uptake in heroin can really be attributed to mostly the number of people we have addicted to prescription painkillers, (who) simply can't find them, and once that supply dries up heroin becomes an obvious choice. It's cheaper and a substitute for that type of high they are looking for," Nielsen said. "I would say so many of these retail users, and I hate to use that expression, so many of (them) are addicted people who may have a drug of choice, but very often are willing to abuse whatever drug they can get their hands on. So it's not uncommon for us to see people abusing different prescription drugs not (only) oxycodone but things that aren't even in the same category (like) gabapentin or something like that."
Bloom said over the course of his five years as district attorney, heroin cases started to come up more regularly.
"It was certainly more significant during the tail end of my time of my time in the district attorney's office than at the beginning. It was certainly more common in the years after 2010 then it was before, is my recollection," Bloom said. "I believe part of the reason for the problem is because certain opiate drugs, certain narcotic pain medications such as oxycontin and oxycodone."
Law enforcement began targeting the abuse of pain dillers, driving addicts toward other options. As the prices for the opiate-based drugs climbed, heroin was seen as a cheaper substitute.
From what he has seen in the various stages of his career, Bloom said local law enforcement has been actively combating the spread of drug abuse.
"I had contact with the officers who were working in the NORDEG drug enforcement unit going back to my time as a staff attorney with the public defender's office, and certainly I worked closely with those officers during my time as district attorney. There is certainly nothing that I have observed to indicate to me anything other than they were doing everything they could to address the particular drug problems that were going on during those various times," he said. "When I first came to the Northwoods in the '90s, methcathinone was a stimulant drug that was being manufactured, kind of similarly to meth labs. But that hasn't been so much of a problem recently. But at those times, they were looking at those sort of things, for one example."
Nielsen said for many young people, drug abuse is approached in a very cavalier -- and dangerous -- manner.
"It is not uncommon, as surprising as it may seem, for people to engage in what they call a pill party, for lack of a better term, where everyone is contributing something to a bowl or a common receptacle and people pick what they're going to use to crush, snort, inject or whatever," Nielsen said. "It is incredibly risky behavior is hard for someone who is not who is not addicted to appreciate people even engaging in it. But it happens."
Bloom said more inpatient treatment options are need in the Northwoods, but noted that the available resources in Oneida County "are quality resources."
"In my experience, the treatment options that are available are quality options. To have a treatment facility right here in Rhinelander (Konoinia) is a plus," Bloom said. "Could we use more available beds for purposes of inpatient treatment? Absolutely, but that is a resource driven situation. Many of the people who are in need of that sort of treatment are not in a position to provide either insurance or their own resources to pay for that kind of treatment."
From his experience working with treatment providers in OWI Court, Bloom said people who seek treatment must be ready to not only change their behavior but their way of thinking. This also applies to people trying to break free from heroin addiction.
"There certainly have been cases over the years, there have been cases -- and there will be more over time -- where an individual that is ordered to enter treatment is merely marking time, just jumping through hoops to get from point A to point B, and avoid further consequences. There are limits on what can be done to prevent that," Bloom said. "But for those patients receiving treatment for alcohol or drug abuse issues, a sincere desire to change is an absolute necessity if the treatment is to be effective."
Both judges agreed that when dealing with people addicted to heroin, there must be a balance between treatment and punishment.
"Generally speaking, in a situation involving heroin, for example, if you have an individual with a limited or no prior criminal record charged with possession of heroin, with no evidence that they are anything other than a user, certainly treatment is one mechanism that can be utilized as a condition of probation, or what have you, to make it more likely that this isn't going to reoccur," Bloom said. "If the problem can be addressed with treatment, and the person is able to get past an addiction to opiate drugs, obviously that is going to be a benefit to them, it's going to be a benefit to the community, etc. etc."
"What do you do from the criminal justice standpoint with people who are addicted? I think we have seen a kind of sea change happening with how we view sentencing in drug charges, particularly possession cases," Nielsen said "We, as a system, have learned that you can't incarcerate people into sobriety. And for people who are addicted it's really not completely an issue of intentionally violating laws relating to possession of drugs. If you're an addict, you're an addict. So I think we're seeing that the cost of incarcerating people, practically the cost of imprisoning people talking at the state level, is so significant that trying to find alternatives when community safety can be assured that we're probably finding treatment modalities for people in a community setting and this is something that is happening nationwide not just in Wisconsin."
Both men said that if it can be shown that the person before them is more than an addicted user, someone who is actively bring illegal drugs into the community, tougher measures are called for.
"Treatment is not going to be the focus under those types of circumstances, that doesn't mean that treatment won't be a part of the picture to some extent," Bloom said. "There is a continuum of different types of cases involving heroin; some where treatment is going to be a strong focus, others where it won't be focused as much on, or at all, depending on the circumstances."
The problem of drug addiction, especially when serious drugs like heroin or oxycodone are being abused, is the more drugs a person is abusing, the more it is like playing Russian Roulette with more than one bullet in the cylinder, as Bloom told one person in court earlier this summer
"That's not a bad analogy," Nielsen said. "And I think when you really even see more concern (is) that young people are willing to take incredibly chances pharmaceutically. They don't know very much about what they're holding in their hand. Nevertheless, if it is given to them by a peer, they're likely to take it."
Nielsen said that the roots of addiction can often be found in the teenage years.
"It's interesting to me, how many of the people I see, not all of them, but a fair number of them, that come from a history of abusing alcohol and marijuana as kids. Once the pathways of addiction have been created, it's not necessarily unusual to see that morph from one substance to another over time, whether it's cocaine, whether it's heroin or (oxycodone) or whatever," Nielsen said. "That can change over time. All the brain science tells us that these pathways to addiction are really created in the teenage years. People who abuse alcohol, marijuana or even tobacco in those years are likely to become addicted to those substances. You don't see too many adults who take up smoking after the age of 25. But if you ask someone when they started, they will tell you in high school."
He added that it isn't just teenagers looking for a cheap thrill that can start a person on the road to heroin addiction.
"Many of the people that we see here (in court) with problems began their addictions with medications that were prescribed for legitimate pain, a bad back, injuries, or surgery, and sometimes we must be concerned from the medical standpoint. I had a tooth removed and I was sent home with I don't know how many oxycodones, and I never took one. I just never was in that level of pain," Nielsen said. "We see a number of people who come to it like that, abusing drugs and living in that lifestyle. It's interesting how others come to it from what was once a legitimate medical concern and diagnosis and then becoming addicted to what they've been prescribed."
Jamie Taylor may be reached at jtaylor@lakelandtimes.com.
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