Pubdate: Sat, 17 Jun 2006
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact:  http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Ben Brown
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

REPORT ON METH DISPUTED LOCALLY

Methamphetamine is not the epidemic politicians and the media claim 
it to be, according to a report from the Sentencing Project. But, 
officials in the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office say the drug is a 
significant problem locally.

"Mischaracterizing the impact of methamphetamine by exaggerating its 
prevalence and consequences while downplaying its receptivity to 
treatment succeeds neither as a tool of prevention nor as a vehicle 
of education," wrote analyst Ryan King in his report.

The report compiled statistics from government studies performed in 
2004 that show that 583,000 people, or less than two-tenths of 1 
percent of the U.S. population, had used methamphetamine in the last month.

By contrast, four times as many people regularly use cocaine and 30 
times as many use marijuana, the report said.

"Nationally that may be true, but in Mendocino County it's the 
opposite," Commander Bob Nishiyama of the Mendocino County Major 
Crimes Task Force said of the report's findings.

A separate government survey highlighted in the report showed that 
methamphetamine use among high school students dropped 36 percent 
between 2001 and 2005. Overall, use has remained stable since 1999, 
according to the report.

Nishiyama said the creation, sale and use of methamphetamine appears 
to be on the rise in Mendocino County. He said many of the people 
arrested in the county have some amount of methamphetamine in their 
system and that there is a direct correlation between methamphetamine 
use in this county and rates of domestic violence and other violence crimes.

Nishiyama said he thought the report was self-serving and did not put 
a lot of faith in its validity. The Sentencing Project is a nonprofit 
organization that supports alternatives to incarceration for 
convicted drug users and other criminals.

The report acknowledged that methamphetamine use is more widespread 
than it was 10 years ago, but stated that data from the jail system 
shows methamphetamine to be a "highly localized" problem.

Data collected from jails showed that in five cities in the Western 
United States, the percentage of suspects who tested positive for 
methamphetamine was more than 25 percent, according to the report. 
Three of those cities -- San Diego, Los Angeles and San Jose -- are 
in California.

Nationally, only 5 percent of arrested suspects tested positive for 
methamphetamine, compared to 30 percent who tested positive for 
cocaine and 44 percent who tested positive for marijuana, according 
to the report.

"This is where it all got started," Nishiyama said. "California has 
led the rest of the country in meth labs, but the rest of the country 
is catching up."

In San Francisco, gangs have turned from selling crack-cocaine to 
selling methamphetamine "because there's more money in it," Nishiyama 
said. Thefts of pseudoephedrine are also increasing statewide, he said.

Currently, California is working on a law that would require anyone 
who sells medications containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient 
in methamphetamine, to keep those items locked up in the back of the 
store. It is already illegal for a person to purchase more than three 
items containing pseudoephedrine from a single store.