Pubdate: Sun, 22 Jul 2007
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2007 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Ryan Sabalow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?208 (Environmental Issues)

METH LINKED TO MEXICO CARTELS

Authorities Say They Haven't Overlooked Methamphetamine During Pot Operation

News stories and photos over the past two weeks depicting assault 
rifle-carrying agents in camouflage swarming through the county's 
public forest lands in an effort to dig out and disrupt illegal 
marijuana gardens left Chris Rosemeyer scratching his head.

The 27-year-old environmental analyst says he, like many in the north 
state, would rather have the agents put their efforts toward 
eradicating methamphetamine and the local labs that make it.

"You can just walk around and see the tweakers around here," 
Rosemeyer said, using the street lingo for a hyped-up meth addict. 
"It's just crazy."

Rosemeyer's criticism in response to the massive Operation Alesia 
anti-pot garden campaign, which last week elicited a visit from the 
country's top drug czar, is one that local law enforcement leaders 
say they've been hearing quite a bit in recent weeks as they pull up 
pot plants by the tens of thousands.

But they say drug agents are still working to stop the spread of 
methamphetamine -- even as they destroy pot plants by the bushel in 
the highly touted Alesia campaign.

"We're still actively working on the meth component," Shasta County 
Sheriff Tom Bosenko said. "That's not been forgotten about."

Bosenko said Operation Alesia is indirectly fighting the area's meth 
problem, even as it combats the environmentally destructive pot gardens.

He contends that the same Mexican drug cartels who are farming pot by 
the acre in Shasta County forests also are bringing in much of the 
area's methamphetamine.

Although his deputies and drug teams are still finding people with 
small amounts of meth with them or in their homes when they're 
arrested, the large scale "super labs" and the smaller "mom and pop" 
meth cookers aren't popping up like they were in years past, Bosenko said.

Special Agent Supervisor Vic Lacey of the state's Bureau of Narcotic 
Enforcement regional office in Redding agreed.

He said meth labs are getting harder to find across California, and 
he, too, says narcotics officers are learning that most of the 
methamphetamine is coming from Mexico.

He said the last local meth labs found in the north state were 
discovered about five months ago in Trinity County. He described them 
as small "stove top" operations.

Lacey credits the labs' disappearances to greater enforcement efforts 
and recent restrictions on some of the chemicals used in meth production.

One such restriction, he said, is the recently enacted federal law 
that requires cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine -- a key 
ingredient in meth -- to be placed behind pharmacists' counters.

Those restrictions, he said, don't apply in Mexico, leaving drug 
cartels free to make and export their wares.

A slimmer supply is causing the price of the drug to go up, he said.

Lacey said meth is selling for between $12,000 and $15,000 a pound, 
nearly double what the wholesale prices were four years ago.

Dan Callahan, the task force commander for the Shasta Interagency 
Narcotics Task Force, said meth, for years known as "the poor man's 
cocaine," is now selling for more than coke.

Still, health officials say the high price hasn't kept people away 
from the drug, which produces a short-term sensation similar to an 
orgasm, but can cause brain damage and leave people's bodies rotting.

David Reiten, the county's drug and alcohol program coordinator, said 
meth remains the illicit drug of choice in Shasta County, second only 
to marijuana. And, he said, the number of meth users ordered by 
judges into drug treatment has remained consistent over the years.

Similarly, Dr. Susan Comfort, the county's forensic pathologist, said 
the number of people who die with meth in their systems has stayed 
steady since 2000.

Toxicology tests performed after autopsy show that between 5 percent 
and 10 percent of the people who ended up on the stainless-steel 
examination table at the county coroner's office had meth in their 
systems, according to her figures.

But Callahan is not so sure that all those people are getting their 
drugs from Mexican-made meth.

Although he agreed with the assessment that drug cartels have been 
bringing in large quantities of meth from across the border, Callahan 
said agents are still finding dumping areas ripe with meth cooking 
waste and supplies.

He said those dumps are likely coming from isolated super lab sites 
"out in never-never land."

But with only a handful of agents to go after meth production, his 
team doesn't have the resources he'd need to target such large operations.

"I could double my team and still stay busy," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom