Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jul 2005
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2005 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Note: Does not publish letters from outside its circulation area.
Author: Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

VALLEY'S METH VICE NOW AFFLICTS NATION

WASHINGTON - Methamphetamine has now spread well beyond the Central 
Valley to become the leading drug problem in a majority of local 
communities nationwide, a new survey shows. Though still toxically 
rooted in the Valley, meth production and use have been bleeding 
across both state and international borders.

"We certainly don't have a hold on the meth problem," Bill 
Ruzzamenti, director of the Fresno-based Central Valley High 
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, said Tuesday. "It has gone 
coast to coast, unfortunately."

Officials in every region except the Northeast called meth their top 
drug problem, according to a survey of 500 counties by the National 
Association of Counties.

Law enforcement officials in 58 percent of the counties labeled meth 
as their biggest drug challenge, surpassing heroin and cocaine.

By contrast, officials identified cocaine as the major problem in 19 
percent of the counties and marijuana as the major problem in 17 
percent of the counties surveyed.

Eighty-seven percent of the counties surveyed found an increase in 
the number of meth-related arrests starting three years ago. The 
upper Midwest, Northwest and Southwest report the biggest change, 
though the rate of increase has slowed somewhat over the past year.

The meth spread, in turn, carries a long shadow with it. Officials in 
70 percent of the counties surveyed blamed meth for an increase in 
the number of local robberies and burglaries, and many counties 
similarly report having to remove more children from meth-tainted families.

"That's something," Ruzzamenti said, "that we've been dealing with 
for some time in California."

Federally funded and locally staffed, for the most part, the Central 
Valley HIDTA coordinates anti-meth efforts in a nine-county region 
from Sacramento in the north to Kern in the south. When it was 
established six years ago, Ruzzamenti said, federal estimates were 
that 50 percent to 60 percent of the nation's illegal meth production 
came from California.

Now, Ruzzamenti said, federal officials estimate that 50 percent to 
60 percent of the meth used in the United States comes from labs in Mexico.

"That's been a pretty dramatic shift," Ruzzamenti said.

Most of the Valley's illegal labs once could be found within five 
miles of state Route 99, Ruzzamenti said. Now, though he noted that 
meth-lab dump sites are still showing up in Stanislaus and Merced 
counties, among other places, the region's labs have shifted to far 
more remote locations.

As an example, Ruzzamenti recalled receiving a phone call from a New 
Jersey law enforcement official. New Jersey authorities had recently 
seized a significant meth lab, a find, Ruzzamenti said, that came 
"out of the blue" for the region.

"With the growth of this drug from the rural areas of the Western and 
Northwestern regions of this country and its slow but continuing 
spread to the East, local law enforcement officials see it as their 
No. 1 drug problem," the survey concludes.

The survey's other findings include:

* In 24 counties surveyed, officials report that between 75 percent 
and 100 percent of all arrests are related to methamphetamine.

* Only 16 percent of counties surveyed report hosting a meth 
rehabilitation program.

* Sixty-two percent of the counties report an increase in domestic 
violence cases related to meth, and 53 percent report an increase in 
simple assault cases linked to the drug.

"Local law enforcement officials acknowledge that for every lab they 
close down, 10 new ones are created," the survey notes.

Meth's nationwide spread has already become abundantly apparent to 
lawmakers, roughly 100 of whom now count themselves as members of the 
House Meth Caucus. The proliferation is spurring wider support for a 
bill written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which would limit 
access to cold medicines containing an ingredient used in meth production.

The bill, co-written with Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., would move cold 
medicines containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter. The bill 
would also limit the quantity of such medicines that an individual 
could purchase monthly. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled 
to consider the bill next week.

Fresno Democrat Jim Costa has co-sponsored similar legislation in the 
House, and Mariposa Republican George Radanovich supports it, as well.
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