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| Methamphetamine Use Explodes in Calif. |
| By The Monterey County Weekly |
| Published: 10/17/2005 |
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In the last decade this amphetamine derivative has rapidly clawed its way up the recreational drug chain in California. Traditionally it's been a domestic drug. It's made cheaply and it makes users feel like superheroes10-feet-tall and bulletproof, supremely confident and optimistic, even as it devastates their bodies, minds and lives. And it is lethally addictive. As a result, there is no demographic for meth users. “Demographically it reflects the community,” says Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Todd Hornick. “It's across the board. It's certainly not ethnic or age or class specific. It runs the gamut.” A majority of meth users go about their addictions while holding down jobs and raising families. For those who can maintain the habit, meth is just another substance. Seemingly “normal” people have the stuff on hand. For example, Ashley Smith, the cute, innocent-looking 27-year-old widowed mother who was taken hostage by suspected Atlanta courthouse gunman Brian Nichols last March, recently disclosed that she was an addict, and that she gave her captor methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal last March. As Hornick points out, our idea of the stereotypical meth user only comes from those people who get busted. “In my experience, I've found drugs to be readily available across all classes. I don't believe that the people in Pebble or Carmel aren't getting high on meth,” Hornick says. “It's just that users in Chinatown or North Fremont are readily perceptible. They're easier targets.” Hornick suggests that the same is true for all crime, including theft, burglary, or even domestic violence. In the same way that the bucolic PG neighborhood hid Abbruzzetti's operation, meth users may be able hide in the suburbs better than they can in cities. It's a scary trend. Unlike marijuana or cocaine or most other recreational drugs, meth grinds users into bone powder if they do it long enough. For most, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when that will happen. And according to Detective Sergeant Doug Dahmen of the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, it's far and away the number one drug of choice in Monterey County, if not the entire state and the nation. “I'd say 70 to 80 percent of all narcotics busts our unit makes are meth-related,” Dahmen says. “The public demand is clearly methamphetamines.” As a result, the manufacture of meth is big business. No longer a niche drug market controlled by biker gangs or rural “meth cooks” setting up labs in shacks or trailers, the meth trade now is ruled by cartels that manufacture 50 percent to 80 percent of this country's meth in Mexico and California, according to US Drug Enforcement Agency statistics. As a result, drug enforcement officials are seeing a shift away from the large rural “superlabs” run by Mexican nationals in the last decade. The large Mexican cartels manufacture meth in bulk quantities in Mexican labs by smuggling tons of pseudoephedrine-based pills to Mexico from factories in Europe, India and Asia. Some experts predict that the cartels will increase Mexican meth production to meet demand left by new laws' squeezing of domestic makers. Laws like California's Precursor Compliance Program (PCP) regulate the sale of controlled chemical substances, laboratory apparatus, reagents and solvents used in the production of meth. California officials hope that even if such laws like PCP don't reduce meth use, they will reduce problems directly associated with makeshift labs, including the potential for explosions and exposure to toxic chemicals. The new laws seem to be working in California, but not nationally. The DEA reported busting 498 clandestine meth labs in California in 2004down from 2,063 in 1999, which signals a significant drop. In fact, Abbruzzetti's lab was one of only three labs busted in Monterey County for all of 2004. But a national study shows that the DEA busted 9,797 labs in the United States last year compared to 162 in 1995, which indicates that the problem is growing massively. And even if the rate of meth manufacturing is dropping in California and Monterey County, the amount of meth being used by Californians and Monterey County citizens shows no signs of abating. Dahmen did a five-year study from 1992 to 1997 which illustrated a 1,500-percent increase in meth-related bookings in Monterey County jails. Last July, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation, nicknamed the Anti-Meth Bill, which would strengthen penalties for the manufacturing and sale of methamphetamine, and provide funding to help clean up meth labs and fund prevention and treatment. Yet despite the fact that the Anti-Meth Bill has been fast-tracked, Republican and Democrat members of Congress are growing increasingly outspoken about what they see as the Bush administration's slow response to the meth epidemic, according to an Oct. 2 article in the Christian Science Monitor. Among other things, the members of Congress criticize the administration's decision to end the $804 million Justice Assistance Program, which funds regional drug task forces. Perhaps the most vocal critic of the administration's stance on meth is Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House drug policy subcommittee who has called for the resignation of White House “drug czar” John Walters and called some of the White House data on meth labs and users “laughable.” |
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