The number of drug and narcotics violations in the state continues to climb. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but one region of North Dakota may be seeing the brunt of it.

Stark County Sheriff Corey Lee says southwestern North Dakota is hit the hardest, and it’s only getting worse.

The Sheriff shares, “Until I got into canine in 2007, I guess I never realized how big the drug problem was. When you first get into canine, obviously your eyes are opened to a lot of different things in law enforcement. It makes you a better officer in many different facets, but then again you see a whole different side of society that you didn’t realize was there.”

Like the majority of the midwest, methamphetamines top the list of drugs law enforcement is seizing statewide. Just in the southwestern portion of the state, the Southwest Narcotics Taskforce handled 45 meth cases in 2018. Well, as of July of this year, the cases already more than doubled to 96.

Sheriff Lee says in his 15 years in law enforcement, meth usage has definitely increased.

I sat down with a member of the Southwest Narcotics Task Force to find out why they’re in a hotspot for drug activity.

Anonymously he shares, “One of the unique things about southwest North Dakota is that we still have kind of the small, rural communities. Some of the departments are no more than two people. And then we have the increase in oilfield traffic and that brings with it, an increase in the amount of money in the area, and then the criminal elements that come with that.”

But meth hasn’t replaced the opioid epidemic. Besides marijuana seizures, the Task Force Agent says they’re still confiscating a lot of prescription drugs that have made it into the wrong hands, and street narcotics are just as common.

However, the data seems to show that opioid seizures decreased in the southwest after the oil boom, while meth seizures are back on the rise.

So what are these agencies doing to slow the growth? The Stark County Sheriff’s Office has increased the amount of time they spend on patrol this year, and the majority of seizures come from traffic stops.

Sheriff Lee adds, “And then we will get together with the Task Force and solve these cases to the best of our ability. You know, we’ve really kind of combined our efforts a little more with the taskforce. We’re trying to get any equipment they need, anything that’s drug-related, or anything we can do to combat that problem is what we’re doing.”

And the task Force has an eye on the big picture.

The anonymous special agent explains, “Our mission is to go out, and it’s not to go out and target the people that are just using and have these addictions. It’s to go out and target the people that are out there to make money off of their misery.”

The Narcotics Task Force Agent says that ultimately the solution they’d like to see is getting the community more active and involved. But Sheriff Lee says the region has very little in the way of addiction treatment centers.

He says when they’re able, they have to send people three hours away, to the state hospital in Jamestown, for help.

Well, the newest member of the Stark County Sheriff’s Office will also be aiding in the drug effort.

A cute little one-and-a-half-year-old pup named Archer. He’s the first canine the department has had in about six years.

They just adopted him from Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. He’s become Deputy Sheriff Kevin Eldridge’s partner in solving crime.

Deputy Sheriff Eldridge shares, “It’s good to have the canine program brought back. It’s a good resource for the community to have and get some of those drugs off the street.”

Archer is trained to sniff out narcotics, help track down people and search for evidence.