Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: L.A. Times DRUG WAR SHIFTING ONCE MORE WASHINGTON -- The use of methamphetamine is rising dramatically in the Western United States, the Justice Department reported Saturday in an extensive new study that also shows America's crack-cocaine epidemic appears to have peaked. In what amounts to a new phase in the ongoing war on drugs, President Clinton released $32 million in federal grants Saturday to help local officials devise strategies tailored for their communities. ``To stop the revolving door of crime and narcotics, we must make offenders stop abusing drugs,'' Clinton said in his weekly radio address. The new funds address the drug report's most sobering conclusion: that no single national strategy will work because drugs of choice vary greatly by region and age, with older users preferring cocaine and younger ones favoring marijuana. Methamphetamine use soared in the early 1990s, with rates among adults who were arrested reaching as high as 44 percent in San Diego, 25 percent in Phoenix and 20 percent in San Jose, the study said. By the mid-1990s, however, methamphetamine use fell significantly, with San Diego's rate dropping to 30 percent, Phoenix's to 12 percent and San Jose's to 15 percent. Law enforcement officials attributed the drop to crackdowns focusing largely on supply, rather than demand. But methamphetamine use began climbing again, and the new study's urinalysis data indicates that such drug use ``has returned close to'' the record levels of the early 1990s. The decline is striking because many cities had reached epidemic levels in the late 1980s, with 80 percent or more of those arrested believed to have been users. The study further found that cocaine use nationally was two to 10 times as likely among males 36 or older as among males between the ages of 15 and 20 - -- a trend that could bring lower crime rates because ``older cocaine users are aging out or dying out,'' said Jack Riley, director of the institute's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program. - ---