How Bad is the Border? Lifesaving Tools Now in Montana Schools

How bad is the wide open southern border? So bad that the cartel fueled invasion of drugs is now leading to lifesaving tools being installed in Montana schools.

Montana's Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R-MT) stopped by our radio studios recently. He dropped in just before heading to Senior High School in Billings where they officially unveiled the naloxone kits for schools here in Montana. The kits will be placed in middle and high schools across the state. (Naloxone is also known as Narcan and is a medicine used to reverse opioid overdoses)

AG Knudsen: "It's sad that we even have to have this conversation right now, but with the world we live in, the state we live in, and the amount of illegal cartel fentanyl coming in- we took some settlement money that we got from the national opioid lawsuit, and we decided let's spend it on these. These things are great. They look like a first aid kit that you hang on the wall in the school. And that's exactly what this is going to be, except it's going to have naloxone in it, just in case we have an accidental fentanyl overdose in a school or in a library.

According to a press release from the Montana Department of Justice, "Fentanyl seizures by anti-drug task forces in Montana have skyrocketed in recent years. Through the first quarter of 2024, Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces seized a total of 163,184 dosage units of fentanyl in Montana compared to 65,142 during the same time in 2023. Throughout all last year, a total of 398,000 dosage units were seized. In 2022, 188,823 dosage units were seized, and 60,557 dosages units were seized in 2021."

Click here for the full press release from the MT DOJ.

David Knobel was guest hosting our statewide radio show as AG Knudsen talked about the naloxone kits. David remarked on how we wouldn't have to deal with so much fentanyl in the state if our southern border was secure.

AG Knudsen: "It definitely feels like we're treating a gunshot wound with a band aid. I mean, this is definitely a situation where if the southern border was secure, I don't think we'd have a complete stranglehold on on the fentanyl, but I think we definitely would have a better handle on the amount of it coming in and the crime resulting from it for sure."

Full audio of the chat with AG Knudsen is below: