When residents of the island community of Sand Point banded together and ousted a suspected drug dealer from town immediately after he touched down at the local airport, some of the vigilantes felt a sense of change -- change for the betterment of the community. Heroin and meth have plagued Sand Point for about five years, residents say, and the volatile scene at the airport acted as a catalyst for locals to step up and try to stomp out substance abuse.
Enter Reclaim Alaska, a nonprofit startup with the goal of taking back its community from the damaging grip of substance abuse. It aims to be a model for all Bush villages, as drugs new and old are wreaking havoc statewide.
Reclaim Alaska co-chairs Tiffany Jackson and Lucinda Holmberg said the nonprofit, built around a typical business model, aims to ensure their town's survival by creating healthy activities for youth and adults. Farther down the line, its members hope to establish a "safe house," or halfway house for people seeking help elsewhere in the state -- Sand Point has a health care center but lacks additional avenues for drug addicts.
"We're just trying to get everybody to see how bad it is," Holmberg said. "We'd eventually like to have our own facility, but we're just a group of community members. We've got things rolling; people are excited and volunteering their time."
Holmberg contends the incident during which the alleged drug slinger was run out of town "created the hype" for the nonprofit's creation. In August, KTUU reported the incident, which quickly went viral. Parents and other concerned citizens were waiting for the man when a nightly PenAir flight arrived. The unarmed mob confronted him as he entered the terminal, then they proceeded to buy the man a one-way ticket back to Anchorage.
TV dinners with a side of illegal drugs
Police identified the man as having a history in the village but didn't outright confirm his alleged illegal activities. However, Sand Point's fluctuating and seasonal population provides the perfect backdrop for dealers, they said.
A town of about 1,000 located on Popof Island off the Alaska Peninsula, Sand Point is characterized as self-sufficient and progressive, with commercial fishing dominating the economy. There's a large transient population for fishing and cannery work during the summer.
Asked how drugs find their way into the community, Sand Point police officer Aaron Spencer replied, "Maybe the better question is 'how don't they?'" Land and sea are the most obvious routes, but drug traffickers get creative to avoid being busted. Heroin and pills are hidden in luggage, inside toiletries like hair gel and deodorant. City administrator Andy Varner recalled a conversation with officers who told him they'd been checking TV dinners for drugs. It turns out someone had opened the packaging, put drugs inside and resealed the microwaveable meals.
As for the town's action against the suspected drug dealer, Spencer said it was a good sign to see them take a stand against the flood of drugs, though the police department "doesn't condone people acting as vigilantes." Spencer said he thinks the nonprofit's efforts will have a positive impact in Sand Point.
A disastrous subculture
On Thursday, Reclaim Alaska is holding a gathering, part of a series, at Sand Point School that included at least two speakers, officer Spencer and a resident who succumbed to addictive opiates but is now working with the nonprofit. The former addict happens to be co-chair Holmberg. She grew up in Sand Point. She moved away to go to school. She eventually ended up in Alaska's largest city with an accounting job. Her work entailed overseeing a budget of more than $7 million.
Then she came home and everything changed. Holmberg dove headfirst into a subculture within Sand Point with disastrous consequences, she said. It was the first time she'd seen OxyContin on the island, but as she fueled her addiction she realized just how available the prescription drug was.
"I broke laws, stole money and lied to get one thing: prescription painkillers," she said during the gathering. "I tore down relationships with people, employers and most importantly my family. I ripped away all of the trust that everyone I knew had in me. I threw it all away."
Those actions eventually cost Holmberg her job. During her first attempt at recovery, she voluntarily committed herself to a detox program in Anchorage. But that effort was a failure. She returned to the small community and fell back in with the same crowd. It was only after she landed in jail, surrounded by murderers and other women who'd lost everything, that she decided to change.
She now spends her time working to reclaim Sand Point -- whenever she can get a moment's rest from raising children and her job at a local cannery.
Holmberg's words offered encouragement while officer Spencer's presentation acted as a warning. He outlined the legal consequences of abusing illegal drugs. He said the community's youth will have a better chance of "avoiding the whole mess" if role models clearly describe the destruction caused by black tar heroin, meth and other drugs.
Offenders need more than a slap on the wrist
The nonprofit wants more for Sand Point, though. They're fed up with the cycle of abuse, the result of a lack of resources.
Serving 1,000 residents, the health care clinic provides the essentials for a well-balanced lifestyle. But local drug users are often at a loss when seeking treatment. If addicts want help, they need to travel to Anchorage or elsewhere in Alaska. A mental health physician travels between Sand Point and nearby King Cove, which according to residents and authorities is struggling with similar drug issues. It still isn't enough, the co-chairs said.
And it's not just a housing unit or treatment facility the community needs, Holmberg said. Residents young and old need healthy activities. Sand Point is a superb place for avid outdoorsmen or women, but beyond that there's not much. Reclaim Alaska has already rekindled a sense of togetherness among its members. Now it needs to open doors for others, she said.
Sand Point Mayor Martin Gundersen said he agrees the community needs more resources for drug addicts, but he'd also like to see those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law take more responsibility for their actions. Gundersen described Sand Point as an easy place to sell drugs, because there are fewer eyes watching. "It's a wide-open market." Still, he recognizes substance abuse is a statewide problem, so the larger issues is creating accountability for repeat offenders.
"It's a personal view I have, but I'd like to see offenders get more than a slap on the wrist," he said, "because they're coming back and doing it all over again."