Western Wisconsin DA Urges Lawmakers To Support Drug Treatment, Court Efforts

Bills pending in Congress would provide $80 million to fight heroin and prescription painkiller addiction, but a district attorney from western Wisconsin says much more is needed to address the problem in rural counties like his.

Trempleau County District Attorney Taavi McMahon said there aren’t any drug treatment programs in rural counties like his to help victims of the epidemic.

“Everyone in this county who needs chemical dependency treatment for an opiate has to go out of (the) county,” he said. “I think that given the lack of resources, we are in a worse position than an urban area where they’ve been accustomed to the problem.”

McMahon said the tragic toll of opiate addiction struck close to home this week when an Osseo woman, 24-year old Amanda Butts, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for giving a fatal dose of oxycodone to 22-month-old Alexis Behlke. Butts was babysitting Behlke when the child died in June 2013. McMahon said he hopes the toddler’s death and Behlke’s sentence will send a message to both community residents and lawmakers that more needs to be done protect children from the dangers of addiction.

If approved, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act would provide grants of up to $750,000 to states and local communities to fund drug courts, addiction prevention programs and prescription monitoring systems.

He said Trempleau County’s drug court is working well abut he’s worried that grants for more drug treatment programs might not trickle down to rural counties like his.

McMahon said he’d like to see the U.S. Food and Drug Administration step in and place more restrictions on the availability of prescription opiates.