Moody County Sheriff Wellman, ahead of attending State of the Union, calls southern border “a national health and safety issue”

FLANDREAU, S.D. (KELO.com) — Moody County Sheriff Troy Wellman is one of Congressman Dusty Johnson’s guests tonight at the State of the Union address.  Sheriff Wellman is hoping President Biden will address the drug problem and the southern border.  Wellman says he has seen a significant drug trend since he took office in Moody County in 2007.  He noted meth labs have become less common because “it’s cheaper to be made in Mexico or China and be smuggled in”.   Wellman noted the amount produced in drug labs “was not sustainable to feed the addiction back then or build on the addiction seen over the years”.  While at one time a felony drug charge would be filtered in with other cases in the court system, Wellman says now Circuit Courts are seeing “a higher amount of drug related cases than any other felony crime on the docket”.   Congressman Johnson invited Sheriff Wellman, along with Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller, to the State of the Union saying he hopes “President Biden highlights a plan to combat fentanyl pouring into our communities”.