Pubdate: Sun, 31 Jul 2005
Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 Los Angeles Daily News
Contact: http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E21664%257E,00.html
Website: http://www.DailyNews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/246
Author: Josh Kleinbaum, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH'S CRASH LANDING

Drug's Rising Popularity Ruins Lives, Taxes Police

The illegal use of methamphetamine has reached epidemic levels in Los
Angeles, and its popularity has now surpassed cocaine as users seek a
cheaper, longer-lasting high, officials say.

Methamphetamine-related arrests by the Los Angeles Police Department
have soared, from 168 during the first half of 2004 to 304 during the
comparable period this year.

More addicts are entering rehabilitation programs, experts say, and
methamphetamine is now the most-treated drug in those programs.

Women are using meth to lose weight -- about 50 percent of meth users
are women -- and gay men are using it to improve their sex lives.

Use is on the rise among Latinos -- users take the illicit drug as an
energy boost as they struggle to support their families.

"For the first time, methamphetamine use has just exceeded cocaine use
in Los Angeles," said Richard Rawson, associate director of UCLA's
Integrated Substance Abuse Program. "The methamphetamine problem has
been devastating for almost 20 years. In Los Angeles, it's a bit more
recent."

Meantime, police and border officials have focused their narcotics
units on meth crackdowns, even though production has shifted from
California's High Desert to Mexico, where ingredients are easier to
come by and law enforcement is more lax.

Still, narcotics task forces in Los Angeles are uncovering significant
methamphetamine activity. Last month, police arrested 20 people in San
Fernando and Granada Hills and seized 60 pounds of cocaine in a major
raid.

"Most of our identity theft, commercial burglars, ongoing career
criminals, it's the meth users," Los Angeles police Detective James
Williams said. "There's still a lot of heroin users out there, but
it's all been eclipsed by meth."

The rush of meth A central nervous system stimulant like cocaine,
methamphetamine provides a strong feeling of euphoria that can last
eight to 24 hours. Users feel optimistic and energized. They can work
longer and eat less.

Physically, the drug damages the lungs, the liver, the kidneys and the
cardiovascular system. It also depletes brain chemicals that are
involved in thinking, memory, pleasure and judgment, leaving users
depressed and tired once the high wears off.

Mentally, attention span shortens and short-term memory disappears.
Users become paranoid -- many methamphetamine users have video cameras
hooked up around their houses -- and suffer from hallucinations.

"They will flip out, see things you don't see," said Donald Goossens,
a narcotics detective at the LAPD's Mission Area station. "Instead of
sweet little Mom sitting on the couch, they'll see their worst enemy
sitting with a shotgun in his lap."

Methamphetamine can quickly turn a middle-class professional into an
out-of-work criminal, officials say. Without an income, meth addicts
often turn to crime to finance their habit.

"It brings you to your knees really quickly," said Glenn McConnell, a
narcotics detective at the West Valley station. "Alcohol, you can be a
20-year user. You don't see a 20-year meth user.

Targeting the source Law enforcement officials take a two-pronged
approach to tackling the growing methamphetamine problem.

Detectives at local stations -- like Williams, McConnell and Goossens
- -- and undercover officers target street dealers and their immediate
suppliers. They also work closely with gang detectives, since most
gangs are involved in narcotics trafficking, particularly
methamphetamine.

"With my 10 guys in West Valley, I'm looking at complaints," McConnell
said. "Is everybody in the neighborhood getting hit with burglary from
a motor vehicle? Do you wake up and see condoms and meth pipes in your
front yard or driveway? Try explaining that to your kids."

While police go after the street users, multi-agency task forces like
LA IMPACT focus on the labs and the distribution rings, trying to cut
the drug off at its source. In 1999, the LAPD amd LA IMPACT seized
1,012 pounds of methamphetamine, mostly from "superlabs" in the High
Desert that used pseudoephedrine extracted from over-the-counter cold
medication as a base for the drug.

Since then, the major trafficking rings -- believed to be run by
Mexican gangs -- have relocated their operations to Mexico, experts
say. Using pseudoephedrine imported from China, the labs produce
batches that are usually stronger than the meth produced in the U.S.
and smuggle it over the border into California, Arizona and Texas.

"You're getting a higher dose of the drug," Rawson said. "All of the
effects are stronger and more damaging over time." Getting treatment
The Matrix Institute, a rehabilitation center in Tarzana, runs both a
private treatment center and a public program for nonviolent offenders
diverted from jail under Proposition 36.

The private program serves a clientele of high-functional
professionals -- doctors, teachers. The Proposition 36 program treats
people with criminal records who are trying to avoid jail.

About 10 percent of the patients in the private program are being
treated for methamphetamine, while more than 90 percent of the
patients in the Proposition 36 program are addicted to
methamphetamine, Matrix Clinical Director Ahndrea Weiner said -- an
indication that meth addicts turn to crime.

"It's a drug that makes you sicker, but you need it more to stay up
once it's in your system, and you want to keep it in your system,"
Weiner said.

While the effects of the drug are reversible, it can take months or
years before chemicals in the brain return to normal levels, Rawson
said. Programs at the Matrix Institute and the Tarzana Treatment
Center try to help addicts become clean, but staying away from the
drug long enough to lose the craving isn't easy.

"It is kind of like Russian roulette," said Ken Bachrach, clinical
director of the Tarzana Treatment Center. "No one ever thinks that
they're going to be the one who has been addicted. They're kind of
gambling a bit when they start. Some people get addicted first time
they use, and others do not.

"But it's like playing with fire, and some people are going to get
burned."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin