Rosemarie Alexander

The Juneau Police Department is offering a reward for reliable tips on illegal drug imports to the capital city.

JPD released its 2013 drug seizure report on Thursday, showing an increase in the use of prescription medicines such as Oxycodone and the time-released OxyContin, as well as methamphetamine.

On Friday, the department announced a drug specific reward of up to $1,500 for reliable reports of OxyContin importation, with the reward depending on the amount of drugs intercepted.

JPD’s Crime Line has previously paid a reward for tips on OxyContin trafficking.

Lt. Kris Sell says it’s an easy path from pills to an intravenous drug like heroin.

These prescription pills are not only damaging in and of themselves, with horrible addictions, but it moves you right into heroin and really serious stuff, because once that needle barrier is broken, you are an intravenous drug user now and things are not going to be good for you.

Sells says the department is also looking for information on heroin and meth. JPD seized 592 grams of heroin last year, at a street value of $ 592,000, and 760 grams of meth, worth 124-thousand.

All tips to JPD’s Crime Line are anonymous.

Nearly half of Coeur Mining’s 2013 fourth-quarter gold production came from Juneau’s Kensington Gold Mine.

Company gold production for the months September through December totaled 80,780 ounces.  Kensington produced 37,404 ounces for the quarter, a 29 percent increase over Kensington’s third quarter, due to higher grade ore.  Cash operating costs for the quarter are expected to be 24 percent lower than the third quarter at $746 per ounce.

Coeur Mining, Inc. released its fourth-quarter report on Friday.

Fourth-quarter gold production at the company’s Palmarejo mine in Mexico also was strong. Coeur Mining’s 2013 fourth-quarter silver production totaled 4,340 ounces, the most coming from Palmarejo.

Kensington, which is about 45 miles northwest of Juneau, produces only gold.  For the year 2013, the  mine produced 114,821 ounces of gold, at an average price of $1,387 per ounce.

Coeur Mining estimates its Alaska mine will produce 105,000 to 112,000 ounces of gold in 2014.

According to the Coeur report, operating costs at Kensington are going down.

Coeur owns gold and silver mines in Australia, Bolivia, Mexico, and the U.S.

 

 

Prescription drug abuse is on the rise again in Juneau.

Juneau police seized a total of $1.9 million in illegal drugs in 2013, ranging from marijuana plants to heroine and cocaine.

The Juneau Police Department report was released to the public Thursday.  It shows a dip in the amount of heroin seized last year, but an increase in OxyContin and other prescription medicines after a sharp decline from 2011 to 2012.

The drug numbers are released annually in a report to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, which also goes to the state legislature.  Lt. Kris Sell says JPD decided to release the numbers directly to the public this year, because drug abuse is such a problem in the capital city.

Juneau has struggled with drug issues to such an extent. You know so many families have been impacted by this issue that we wanted to tell them what we’re seeing as soon as possible and directly.

The report compares the numbers of drugs seized in 2013 with the previous two years.  It shows that 970 Oxycodone pills worth more than $156,000 were confiscated, compared to 275 pills in 2012. Heroin seizures went down, while methamphetamine grew almost two times between 2012 and 2013.

Lt. Sell says police are seeing an increase in Oxycodone from Canada, but the main sources for all illegal drugs in Juneau are California, Oregon and Washington.

“Drugs are very expensive in Juneau, as you can tell from the totals. So there’s a very high profit margin, bringing drugs out of Seattle and Portland and California,” Sell says. “You can make money doing that or you can try and steal enough money or other items to pay for the drugs.  We’re finding that people with drug problems are our most likely burglars. And many of our burglary suspects are involved with drugs.  So drug crimes are really attached to every other crime.”

Sell says more new drugs are appearing in Juneau, including MDMA, called Molly, or Ecstasy.  More than $17,000 in Spice also was seized by Juneau police last year. Spice is a designer drug sometimes considered synthetic marijuana.

“But that makes it sound really more benign than it is, because this Spice has been known to cause severe hallucinations and really aggressive, violent behavior,” Sell says.

While most narcotics come into Juneau by air and the U.S. Postal Service, Sell says the postal service has worked hard with police to interdict illegal drug packages, which accounts for the larger number of seizures last year.

Juneau police opened 137 narcotics cases in 2013, and 41 defendants were charged with 65 crimes.

 

The rain atop Juneau’s snowpack earlier this week caused a number of avalanches in the mountains around downtown.

CBJ avalanche forecaster Tom Mattice reports widespread natural snow slides on Tuesday above Thane Road, the Behrends Avenue avalanche path and other urban paths.

While some slide activity persists in isolated areas, he says the rain is now creating drainage channels in the snowpack.

“And once it develops full-depth drainage channels in the snowpack, instead of feeling the whole weight of the new rain on the snow a lot of it just drains through the snowpack,” Mattice says. “So the snowpack has a chance to settle and it becomes a little bit healthier.”

Thursday’s avalanche danger is considered moderate to considerable and natural avalanches are still possible.

“We’re still in a bit of weakness  with above freezing temperatures and continued precip, so we still have the possibility for natural avalanches to occur.  But in many of those places, a lot of the snow has already slid off,” Mattice says. 

He says until temperatures drop to below freezing, avalanche danger will linger in places.

A 39-year-old man who ran away from a Juneau halfway house earlier this month has been arrested.

Juneau Police say Derek McMillan was picked up this morning when police stopped a vehicle for speeding on Yandukin Drive. McMillan was a passenger in the vehicle.

Juneau resident Regal Robert Hudson, 20,  was arrested for driving without a valid license.

Both McMillan and Hudson were lodged at Lemon Creek Correctional Center.

McMillan left Gastineau Human Services Halfway House on Aisek Street on Jan. 3^rd.

According to police, his criminal history in Alaska and Florida includes drug offenses, robbery, vehicle theft, and assault.

 

As Juneau teachers and the administration enter another bargaining session today, the word from both sides is positive.

Negotiations over the last year have been very contentious as teachers held out for a cost of living raise while the district continued to say “no.”

But last week the Juneau Education Association presented a proposal that got the ball rolling again.

School Board President Sally Saddler says the district is taking it seriously and has developed a counter offer.

“The package actually provides increases in salaries and benefits within the constraints of the budget that we’re facing,” Saddler says. “So we’re hopeful that they will seriously consider the proposal as seriously as we were looking at what they presented us.”

 JEA spokesman and teacher Dirk Miller says his colleagues feel more positive as negotiating teams go into today’s session.

“I can’t tell you how close, but we have come a lot closer. So we are moving, we are negotiating,” Miller says. “I hope to see that same effort on the district’s side.”

Teachers have been picketing school board meetings and threaten to strike if efforts fail to produce an agreement.  They’ve been working without a contract for a year.