A man allegedly carrying black tar heroin was arrested as he stepped off a plane in Sand Point last month. It’s the most recent development in the town’s fight against hard drugs.
Twenty-two-year-old Gage Carlson is facing two felony charges after his April arrest: one for transporting heroin with intent to sell it, and another for possession of Oxycodone.
Carlson has been in custody in Anchorage, pending another hearing in Sand Point District Court this week.
He was allegedly carrying seven grams of black tar heroin when he arrived in town. Police chief John Lucking says that would fetch anywhere from $14,000 to $28,000 on the street. They’re still investigating others who might be connected to Carlson’s case.
Lucking says it’s part of slow but steady progress in combating Sand Point’s drug problem. For one thing, he says police have seen an increase in tips about suspected drugs or drug dealers coming into town. That lets them make arrests before suspects even enter the airport.
He says they have Sand Point’s grassroots anti-drug group, Reclaim Alaska, to thank for the upsurge of community involvement.
Tiffany Jackson is the chair of that group, which is less than a year old. As far as she knows, none of their volunteers were involved in this latest investigation.
Jackson says the bust is a good sign. But it also shows that substance abuse is still an issue in town.
“But I’m hopeful that the community is making a turn toward being more healthy,” Jackson says. “There seems to be a positive response when we hear that less drugs are making it into the community and there’s less opportunity for people who have addictions to have access to them.”
Reclaim Alaska’s volunteers are also working on promoting healthy choices among local youth. They held two “Reclaim Days” at Sand Point’s school this past semester — teaching students about the dangers of drug abuse, and getting them involved in spreading the anti-drug message.
Now, the group is brainstorming ways to do more.
“It’d be nice if we could figure out some way to formalize the organization [and] get some support to move its mission forward,” Jackson says.
She hopes some of that support will come through grants. But she says Reclaim Alaska prides itself on what’s been done without any funding — especially considering what they’re up against. Sand Point is a remote community with a transient population, and a long-standing issue with heroin and meth. Jackson says for residents to organize is a big step forward.
“I think the reason it’s been successful so far is that it took community members in Sand Point saying, regardless of the money that’s available, ‘We’ve had enough. We need to take our community back. We need to make this a safe place for our families, for our children, for our future, for right now’ — and taking a stand,” she says.
That started even before Reclaim Alaska came together, when a group of Sand Point residents ran a suspected drug dealer out of town. They met the man at the airport last August and bought him a one-way ticket back to Anchorage.
Jackson says Reclaim Alaska formed in the wake of that incident, and she says they don’t condone vigilantism. But they are working with other communities, like Dillingham and Bristol Bay, to spread the idea that activism is possible — even without resources.
At home in Sand Point, Jackson says her ultimate goal is a totally drug-free community.
“I think that it would be difficult to truly achieve. But it’s something that we absolutely work towards,” she says. “The more people that are knowledgeable of what’s going on, of the resources that are available to make any sort of healthy change or choice in their life, the better.”
Reclaim Alaska has the support of police, local government and neighboring communities in that mission. Jackson says they’ll keep chipping away at it, one step at a time.
Annie Ropeik is a reporter for KUCB in Unalaska.
