Connect with us

Utah

New overdose task force in Utah launched, DEA claims it's a success

Published

on

New overdose task force in Utah launched, DEA claims it's a success


SALT LAKE CITY — A new task force to get tough on those involved in overdose deaths just launched here in Utah, and the Drug Enforcement Administration says so far, it’s a success.

But one public health advocate that works with addicts get help says the task force will result in more overdose deaths, not fewer.

“I know what it feels like to lose somebody and want there to be someone to pay for something to make it better,” says Dr. Jen Plumb. “Some sort of consequence that would make it seem somehow alright that we lost him.”

Back in 1996, Dr. Jen Plumb lost her brother, Andy, to addiction.  Stopping addiction is personal for her, and she says this new task force concerns her.

Advertisement

“When we talk about increasing responses in an overdose in kind of a criminalized fashion, that’s the thing I’m most worried about,” says Plumb.

She says the approach to allow law enforcement to hold more people accountable in an overdose death will result in fewer calls for help.

“You’re going to discourage people from calling for that response.,” says Plumb.

“It is the deadliest drug that we’ve ever seen in the history of our country,” says Dustin Gillespie with the DEA in Salt Lake City. He says the goal of the Utah Drug Overdose Task Force is to crack down on big-time criminals.

“We’re looking for serious, serious offenders. the worst of the worst,” says Gillespie. Gillespie is looking for people like like Colin Shapard, the dealer sentenced earlier this month for selling fentanyl to an 18-year-old who almost died.

Advertisement

According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah, the DEA states that fentanyl has saturated the drug market in Utah. “It is cheaper, more potent, and more widely available than ever before,” the office said.

They say he’s the same dealer that gave two Park City teens drugs in 2016. Those teens died.

“We’re looking for the distributor who shows a callous disregard for the city, is looking to target youth,” Gillespie says that’s what Shapard is.

Gillespie says the task force is meant to establish better training for agencies processing scenes where someone died from a drug overdose.

“There’s a balance between holding people accountable, providing justice for those families and allowing the public the opportunity to feel like they can come to us because without an investigation, we can’t provide justice,” says Gillespie.

Advertisement

“Making everything illegal, busting everybody has unintended consequences in the world that i work in,” says Gillespie.

She says consequences like this, mean more addicts will die. “Personally, I can’t sleep at night with that thought.” Gillespie said.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Utah

Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame

Published

on

Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame


TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.

The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”

Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.

The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.

Advertisement

The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.

It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.

In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.



Source link

Continue Reading

Utah

Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer

Published

on

Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer


SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.

The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.

Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?

Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.

Advertisement

Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?

You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.

There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?

We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.

Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?

Advertisement

This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.

If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.

DRIVEN TO CHANGE

Share your ideas on how to make Utah’s roads safer





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Utah

Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters

Published

on

Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters


WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.

This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.

“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.

On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.

Advertisement

“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.

The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.

“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.

The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.

“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.

Advertisement

The colonel calls it a major step forward.

“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending