Missoula officials say they are seeing an increase in drug overdoses in our area.

“We are seeing a lot of hospitalizations and a lot of deaths,” Chief Criminal Deputy Missoula County Attorney Matt Jennings said. “In about the last five weeks I have filed motions to dismiss in six different cases because the defendants I was prosecuting died.”

The threat of overdose has become a grim reality in Missoula as drug-related overdoses continue to climb.

Montana DPHHS reported over 1,400 opioid overdoses from April 2020 to April 2021.

Missoula police say they are seeing the same increase on the street level and have one main cause.

“From our perspective, the availability of black market fentanyl is having a significant effect on the number of drug overdoses that we see in our community,” Drug Task Force Commander Lt. Matt Stonesifer said.

For MPD, that means making sure all officers are prepared for an overdose event when they leave the station.

“At an immediate level, we have equipped all MPD patrol officers with naloxone so they are prepared to address the immediate effects of an opioid overdose if they are either sent to one or they encounter one during their regular duties,” said Stonesifer.

We asked Jennings about what can be done from the County Attorney’s Office to curb the upward trending numbers.

“Each and every fentanyl case really is a public health emergency and an emergency for those individuals taking it. It's so addictive that once people start they really can't stop,” said Jennings. “So we are trying to get people into drug treatment programs. We have some drug treatment courts here in Missoula that have testing and sort of a path to having an alternative outcome to your criminal cases but nipping your addiction in the bud.”

Stonesifer repeated that sentiment, saying MPD hopes to get people the resources they need to treat addiction, but they are on the front line so their first action is to save the person's life.