Substance Abuse Task Force using opioid settlement money positively in the county

By Anna Jauhola
There is little data on opioid drug use for Kittson County.
This is good news, said Jacey Spaeth, during the annual meeting of Kittson County’s Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force.
“We’re in a really unique position to use these funds for preventative measures instead of trying to fix a problem that’s already there,” said Spaeth, a member of the task force and project coordinator for Kittson County Public Health.
Due to the opioid epidemic across the U.S., big drug companies settled last year and states, counties and other entities received settlement money to address the crisis. Kittson County has thus far received $75,000, said Jeanna Kujava, Kittson County Public Health director.
“We have put about $30,000 into a certificate of deposit, so they are just growing,” Kujava said. “We will get funding every year from the different drug companies, but we’ll have an annual budget as to what is expended by the task force.”
The group has used minimal funding over the last year to create and purchase promotional materials, and to host or assist with events. They have organized two drug take back events where the public can drop off expired prescription medication for proper disposal. They have also procured at-home medication disposal kits.
“It’s a packet where you can put your medication in and it dissolves. Then you just throw the package in the garbage,” Spaeth said. “We’ve distributed at least 100 of those and we still have more.”
Spaeth said people can pick up the at-home medication disposal kits at drug drop-off sites, which are at the Kittson County Sheriff’s Office and Kittson Pharmacy in Hallock.
Much of their efforts have also been focused on prevention activities within Kittson County’s three public schools – Kittson Central, Lancaster and Tri-County in Karlstad. Kids have received promotional materials featuring 988, the crisis line, and the program “Talk, They Hear You.” The push is to learn how to talk about mental health, and destigmatize it. Last spring, younger students signed a poster in each school encouraging the oldest students to be safe and make good decisions before big events like prom and senior nights. Many wrote messages like, “Be safe,” “I look up to you,” “Please take care of yourself” and “You’re a role model.”
Through prevention activities, the task force also brought in a speaker from the Steve Rummler HOPE Network to give a presentation and demonstration on Narcan. This medication stops an overdose as it’s happening. Talking about overdoses and how to prevent them is the goal, but accidents happen, Spaeth said.
“Kids can grab your grandparents’ medication or someone with dementia can take their medication twice or three times, and that’s an overdose,” she added.
Spaeth added the group has also talked about how vaping affects kids, and will focus in the coming months on how to best address the issue. She hopes they can give examples of how much vaping costs you mentally and monetarily.
The goal is to keep the group steadily promoting prevention against any kind of drug abuse, whether it’s opioids, vaping, tobacco, narcotics or cannabis.
“I’d like to note we are a substance abuse prevention task force, so as not to pigeon hole us into opioid addiction and prevention,” Kujava said. “It allows us to be more broad and move forward to include some of those initiatives under the same task force. I think it’s going to be a nice fit and will bring us forward as we have these consistent dollars that are non-levy dollars that allow some wiggle room in use.”
Tom Dowdle attended the meeting representing the Tri-County Ambulance Service and township boards to ask for Narcan training. He said the ambulance crews for Tri-County have to pay for Narcan kits and the training to use them.
“We do every once in a while run across an overdose through our ambulance,” Dowdle said. “We have to pay for those kits. Also in the townships, maybe we could get the training and a kit or two, a town hall or wherever they reside.”
Spaeth said that’s a possibility, and she will look into other programs available that would provide free Narcan to the ambulance service and townships. Dowdle suggested the task force could present at the annual Township meeting in March.
The task force will meet again in January. Anyone interested in substance abuse prevention can participate in this task force. If you are interested, you can contact Kujava at 218-843-3662 or email her at [email protected].
The task force meets the third Wednesday of each month, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Kittson County Courthouse in Hallock. There is also a virtual meeting option for those who can’t attend in person. To receive the virtual meeting link, you can email Kujava, who will also send an agenda for the meeting.