ALASKA GUARD TEAMS UP WITH AGENCIES IN WAR ON DRUGS

EFFORTS: Military interdicts drug shipments, tells kids of dangers.

Alakanuk -- In a little-known role, the Alaska National Guard is backing
law enforcement agencies in the struggle against drugs across the state.

Committing troops, weapons and technology, the Guard has teamed with the
agencies to interdict drug shipments and stop drug production. It visits
schools to educate kids about the dangers of substance abuse. And it brings
what resources it can to fighting two Alaska nightmares: alcohol abuse and
huffing.

The Guard's anti-drug efforts don't get much attention, and Adjutant Gen.
Phillip Oates, Guard commander, said that's the way he likes it.

"We're not looking for publicity for this," he told the Anchorage Chamber
of Commerce at a luncheon earlier this year. "We want to help behind the
scenes. ... One reason we have such interagency acceptance of our effort
here is because we are there to make those agencies more successful."

Federal law prohibits the use of active-duty armed forces for domestic law
enforcement. National Guard members, however, are considered state
employees in peacetime and are allowed to use military resources to aid law
enforcement.

"We're not the guys who kick down the doors, but we're in direct support of
those guys who do," Oates said. "This program has the ability to take every
resource I have in the National Guard and provide them to agencies for
either drug demand reduction or education or drug suppression."

The Alaska Guard spends $1.7 million a year in fighting drugs, employing 31
full-time members in its interdiction and education programs.

Congress in 1987 acknowledged drugs coming into the United States as a
national security threat and authorized the Department of Defense to assist
in stopping the flow. The law directed each state's National Guard to help
law enforcement agencies battle drugs with a military support team under
supervision of a counter-drug coordinator.

Lt. Col. Tom Katkus, coordinator for the Alaska Guard, said goals are to
educate youths, increase safety, reduce health care costs and break the
source of drugs coming into the country.

Reaching out to rural Alaska is one component of the program. Staff Sgt.
Andy Workman, a drug demand reduction specialist, has visited this Yukon
Delta village of 652 twice this year on trips coordinated by the Guard's
Rural Affairs Program.

"Most of the teachers and community leaders tell us that they desperately
need more education in their communities, and they are very concerned about
their next generation," Workman said during a late August visit here.
"We're very excited about bringing new programs into a village or community
like this."

THE PROBLEM

The Guard has a particular interest in fighting drugs in Alaska; it
currently has a shortage of members, due in part to recruits who can't pass
drug tests.

"The biggest inhibiting factor for me recruiting in rural Alaska is drug
use," Oates said. "It used to be meeting the education standards, and then
it used to be meeting the medical standards. Today it's indeed a larger
problem to meet the urine analysis standards."

The Guard sees marijuana as a big problem. Katkus said Alaska leads all
states in indoor marijuana grow operations, most of which are in the Mat-Su
area. Oates said the pot grown here is often more potent than that found
elsewhere.

"It's a good product," Katkus said. "It's moved out of Alaska, and it's
pretty profitable."

In Anchorage, "cocaine is moving in very quickly and it's probably our
largest threat at present," he said. "And methamphetamines are rapidly
coming in from the Seattle and Oregon area."

Katkus identified heroin and hallucinogens like Ecstasy and liquid LSD as
other drugs in high demand in urban areas.

Here in the Bush, the substances of choice are different from those in
urban Alaska, but their abuse plagues communities.

"Drug use is definitely a major problem in the villages," said Raymond
Oney, Alakanuk tribal administrator. "Because of the lack of employment,
(people are) always looking for something to do."

Alcohol and inhalants are most abused, community leaders told Workman, Lt.
Noel Pediangco of the Rural Affairs Program and Staff Sgt. Jeff Wells, a
National Guard spokesman, at a meeting during their August visit in Alakanuk.

"The kids have found a new very dangerous chemical to inhale or huff:
propane," said Elizabeth Chikigak, City Council secretary.

Mayor Ragnar Alstrom said huffing "has been a problem for a long time, but
it seems to run in a fad." Awhile ago, he said, gasoline was the popular
substance to inhale.

The subject of drug abuse came up again later that day at a meeting of the
Alakanuk Advisory School Board. Guard members met with five board members,
principal Nancy Mazurek and 15 of her staff members.

"Kids as young as first grade are sniffing gas," said Wendy Milligan, who
teaches second- and third-graders. "It is a real concern when they are
starting that young."

INTERDICTION

Katkus, a retired Anchorage Police Department captain, said the Guard does
not perform law enforcement on its own but rather responds to requests for
help from local police departments, Alaska State Troopers and federal
agencies including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. postal
inspectors and U.S. Marshal's Service.

"I'm in the middle of all these agencies. Each agency depends on us for
transportation, intelligence, communication, personnel, planning and
training," Katkus said. "This covers almost every law enforcement entity in
Alaska."

The Guard does not target individual drug users, he said, but those
producing and importing controlled substances.

Counter-Drug Support Program staff members based at Fort Richardson are on
standby 24 hours a day to respond to requests, he said. Assistance is often
needed when police or troopers discover marijuana grow houses.

Guard members provide manpower to break down a grow operation, he said. The
Guard can also use a C26 plane with heat-detection equipment when a law
enforcement agency wants to check on a suspected grow house.

In addition to helping out in the field, the Guard invites law enforcement
officers to attend training seminars at Fort Richardson. More than 1,000
participate each year, Katkus said.

In villages, alcohol has long been a scourge. Many have voted to ban it.
The Alaska National Guard is involved with efforts to prevent alcohol
smuggling, a job unique among the Guard anti-drug units nationwide.

"Counter-drug personnel make a significant impact on that with the large
quantity of alcohol they are finding being sent through the mail system,"
Katkus said.

Despite those efforts, alcohol is constantly smuggled into dry villages
like Alakanuk.

"Alcohol is still a problem," Oney said. "I don't think it'll go away. It's
a problem that has existed ever since white men came into Alaska."

EDUCATION

While most of its manpower is focused on interdiction, the Guard has a Drug
Demand Reduction Program staffed by four employees. The program educates
people, mostly youngsters, about the dangers of drugs.

At the Aug. 22 school board meeting here, Workman announced that Alakanuk's
request for a day of anti-drug education had been approved for Oct. 22.

Board member Paula Ayunerak said she looks forward to the day. She
expressed concern that students don't understand how substance abuse
affects their health.

"It's important that children know the effects of alcohol on all their
organs," Ayunerak said.

As part of the day, Alakanuk will receive an Operation Kidlift visit. A
Guard Blackhawk helicopter will fly to the school on a training flight.
Guard members will conduct anti-drug seminars with the students and then
allow them to tour the Blackhawk. The message: If you ever want to do
something as exciting as fly a helicopter, don't abuse substances.

"The kidlifts are typically the most popular because of the attraction of
the helicopter," Workman said. "Kids really enjoy seeing the helicopter and
touring it."

Operation Kidlift visits 10 to 15 schools a year. When the helicopter
lands, "you've got their attention," Katkus said. "Then you hit them with
the message of what a healthy lifestyle is."

When a Blackhawk can't come to them, Anchorage-area students have the
opportunity to visit the Guard's aircraft at Fort Richardson and Kulis Air
National Guard Base. The tours include anti-drug messages.

Despite anti-drug work by numerous local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies plus the National Guard, Oates acknowledged that "in many ways we
are fighting a losing battle."

When considering the war on drugs, he said, "I don't think you can look at
it in terms of winning or losing but how much worse we'd be doing if we
didn't have these efforts."