Anchorage Spice emergencies decline in November as police begin issuing citations

After last month's onslaught of medical emergencies due to suspected Spice use around Anchorage, the first few weeks of November were relatively quiet for responders in what's become a public health crisis in Alaska's largest city.

At Bean's Cafe, a social services organization serving Anchorage's homeless that has seen its clients hit especially hard by the Spice problem, the last two weeks have been the quietest since mid-July.

In October, nearly 20 percent of all medical emergency transports were related to suspected Spice use, according to the Anchorage Fire Department. But so far in November, that number has dropped to just 8 percent of medical pickups.

"It almost feels like life is returning to normal at the cafe," said Lisa Sauder, executive director at Bean's.

Leading into the weekend, there had been no medical emergencies due to Spice at Bean's for a full week, a welcome respite from the chaos that has characterized the last three months, Sauder said.

The Anchorage Police Department says it can pinpoint the start of the problem to a few days in mid-July. Since then, the city has seen waves of Spice patients that vary from day to day and week to week, which police blame on a handful of dealers targeting Anchorage's homeless population.

Since a new law criminalizing Spice went into effect last Tuesday, the Anchorage Police Department has issued seven criminal citations relating to Spice, spokesperson Anita Shell wrote.

Six were for consuming Spice, and one was for consuming and distributing Spice, as one person was sharing it for free, Shell wrote.

"No one (was) arrested at the time because all were in need of medical attention and all were released to local hospitals for care," Shell wrote.

They will, however, need to appear in court or a warrant will be issued for their arrest, Shell said.

So far, none of the criminal citations has been for dealers. Police have said dealers are the primary target, and APD Lt. Sean Case said this month that it would be "pretty ridiculous" to target users who are winding up in the emergency room.

In reference to the citations issued so far and the lack of dealers cited, Shell said that "it would be good to get at the root of the problem, but these other issues are right before us, so you can't ignore that."

October was the worst month by far for Spice pickups, with the Anchorage Fire Department conducting about 360 medical transports for suspected Spice use, according to data reviewed by Erich Scheunemann, assistant chief of emergency medical service operations.

By contrast, from Nov. 1 through 15, there were 66 pickups for suspected Spice use.

This isn't the first time that Spice calls have calmed in recent months. An 11-day stint from Aug. 24 through Sept. 3 was relatively quiet, with 31 medical calls, but was followed by 14 calls in one day that preceded another 19 days of relative quiet.

With four months of data now on hand, the Anchorage Fire Department will stop its daily tracking of Spice medical emergencies, Scheunemann said.

The department began tracking Spice calls to aid the state Department of Health and Social Services in its own investigation, results of which have yet to be released; now, Scheunemann will stop reviewing the daily calls.

After four months, the ups and downs of the Spice medical calls still seem random, not tied to a particular day, weather conditions or other factors.

"I couldn't find any real kind of pattern to it," Scheunemann said, "At least on our end."

Sauder believes several factors may explain the drop in calls, including cold Southcentral Alaska weather that may be keeping clients cautious and indoors. She also said the city's new law criminalizing Spice may have scared dealers -- though the drop in calls began before the law went into effect -- and ongoing awareness at the cafe may have had an impact on its clients, she said.

Time will tell whether this latest dropoff is a trend or an anomaly, Sauder said, but "we're hopeful."