State Cuts Drug Task Force

DAYTON - State funding for the Drug Task Force that helped bust last summer's big marijuana grows and helped reduce the availability of drugs in the Touchet Valley was eliminated last month.

The drug task force ceased operations Dec. 31. It began in 2005.

Walla Walla and Columbia counties were part of the South Eastern Narcotics Team that also included Asotin and Garfield counties.

The state provided $1.5 million per year to different agencies through a grant for the task force. About $ 5 7 , 4 0 0 went to Walla Walla County's Sheriff 's Office and about $ 4 4 , 0 0 0 went to Columbia County's Sheriff's Office in the year of 2011.

In Columbia County, that money helped fund Deputy Jeff Jenkins to focus on battling drugs. Some money also helped fund the county prosecutor and clerk's office to help prosecute drug cases.

"It's very unfortunate that we lost this grant," Jenkins said. "But the work I've done up to this point has helped me make connections that will remain strong despite the funding cuts that all agencies are facing."

In July of 2006, Columbia County made Jenkins' position on the task force full time to help carry out the goals of combating narcotic sales, getting rid of meth labs, drug trafficking, investigations, education and drug busts. The task force handled hundreds of cases like this per year.

In Columbia County, Jenkins and the task force helped the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington State Patrol remove 25,765 marijuana plants from Eckler Mountain, 2,300 plants in the lower Tucannon Valley, 6,800 plants from Robinette Mountain, and about 2,000 plants from the upper Tucannon Watershed.

In Walla Walla County, the grant helped fund the sheriff's office's Sergeant Gary Bolster, a senior detective who has been with the sheriff's office about 20 years. The department's public information officer, Undersheriff Eddie Freyer, said the department will keep Bolster on staff despite the loss of the funding. But Freyer does not know how much of Bolster's time will be spent on drug cases after the loss of the funding. Freyer said he is hoping to keep all staff members intact and he hopes the cut means only drug programs will be affected.

To handle the new drug task force program, Walla Walla simply moved staff around rather than hiring a new employee, which means no one loses his or her job, Freyer said.

"We have to make adjustments in the budget," Freyer said. "This will have an adverse affect on our ability to continue some of our programs. We'll try to continue to do the best we can. We are confident it will not have a dramatic effect."

But the local task force wasn't the only that lost its funding. The loss of the grants affects 13 rural counties in the state of Washington.

Jenkins said at the end of October, the sheriff's office was notified that funding for the task force was included in the governor's proposed cuts, so the department had a heads up.

Without the grant from the state, the local counties will have to use their own resources to keep up on the war against drugs.

Jenkins will remain a full-time deputy with the sheriff's office to eliminate drug trafficking, growing, manufacturing, buying, selling and using of drugs in our communities. He said he will continue to keep citizens informed of his current strategies for enforcement, even if it's on his own time. The department will continue to receive two different annual grants, one for marijuana eradication from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and another for meth initiatives from the Pierce County Alliance, a statewide social service agency, to help cover his overtime related to drug enforcement and investigations.

"With the cutting of state-funded grants we're going to have to work together with surrounding agencies to continue effectively combating drug problems," said Sheriff Walt Hessler.