Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 2002 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Holley Gilbert

COUNTIES COLLECT MONEY TO FIGHT METH

VANCOUVER -- Since federal law enforcement efforts joined local ones to put 
the squeeze on illegal drug trafficking along the Interstate 90 corridor, 
methamphetamine cookers and sellers have moved elsewhere -- including 
Southwest Washington.

Now, $200,000 in federal dollars will come directly to Clark, Cowlitz and 
Lewis counties for police training, equipment and investigations primarily 
aimed at shutting down mid-to large-size meth operations.

"I want to send a loud and clear message to criminals and drug pushers: You 
will not continue to get away with it," U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, 
announced Friday. "Southwest Washington is a great place to live but a 
terrible place to use and distribute drugs."

The three counties recently were added to the federal High Intensity Drug 
Trafficking Area Program because despite diligent efforts against the meth 
trade, the region remains "overwhelmed" with methamphetamine- related 
crime, Baird said during a news conference called to announce approval of 
the federal money.

In Clark County, 80 percent of forgery, fraud and identity theft crimes can 
be linked to the use of meth and cocaine, Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas 
said.

The increase in burglaries and other property crimes within the city also 
means, "Somebody's supporting a drug habit," said acting Chief Brian 
Martinek of the Vancouver Police Department.

"Meth is, if not the, one of the main threats to society right now," 
Martinek said.

The federal program money will buy items such as disposable coveralls and 
purifying respirators worn by police inside meth labs, as well as 
electronic surveillance equipment. It will allow Clark County law 
enforcement officials to tap into the program's intelligence database in 
Seattle. And it will train police in how to handle the clandestine labs and 
support long-term, intensive investigations.

Clark County will receive $100,000, and Cowlitz and Lewis counties will get 
$50,000 each.

Meth production in Washington is often fed by shipments of pseudoephedrine, 
an ingredient common in nasal decongestants, which can be bought legally in 
large quantities in Canada, Baird said.

Or meth can be shipped into the state from huge "superlabs" in California, 
said Commander Keith Kilian of the Clark-Skamania Drug Task Force. Shutting 
down a large meth operation in Clark County could mean closing, or at least 
slowing down, a related illegal drug operation in another state, he said.

The meth lab problem is growing, Kilian said. So far this year, the task 
force has shut down 25 labs, compared with 17 during the same period last year.

Meth's low price, prolonged high and extreme addictiveness have made it 
popular in Western, primarily rural states, including Idaho, Utah and 
Washington. But users can be more violent than other addicts, and meth's 
use is spreading east.

Some "Bible Belt states are suffering huge increases in production and 
use," Lucas said.

Baird, who saw meth's effects firsthand as a psychologist and went on to 
found the 89-member bipartisan Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control 
Methamphetamine, said he hoped program money would flow at about $200,000 
for several years. Exact amounts are subject to change, however, depending 
on the federal budget, he said.

Prevention efforts must continue, and more money is needed for treatment, 
Baird said, calling treatment of meth addicts "desperately difficult." But 
choking the meth supply will eventually result in fewer users, he said.

The new federal money will help turn around what has been a decade- long 
rise in meth production and use, Baird said. But the process won't be quick.

"I don't think we're done with this," he said. "I think we'll be dealing 
with this for a decade or so."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens