SHERIFF'S PROGRAM AIMS TO KEEP METH USERS SOBER AND PRODUCTIVE

VISTA -- When sheriff's Cpl. David Brown pulled up to Ismael
Martinez-Salas' Vista apartment, there were no sirens.

Brown knocked on the door and was invited in as if he was a neighbor.
Through a translator, he asked Martinez-Salas about his health, his wife
and kids and about the last place he worked -- a local taco shop.

Throughout the conversation, Brown's eyes scanned the apartment for signs
of drug use. He paid attention to Martinez-Salas' movements, the pupils of
his eyes.

Ten minutes later, he left. Martinez-Salas was clean.

Brown is part of an experimental Sheriff's Department program run out of
the Vista station that aims to drive down crime rates by quelling
methamphetamine use.

But the program doesn't rely on sweeps of drug dealers and users. Instead,
Operation Housecall sends deputies to users' homes, allowing them to get to
know meth users' families and friends while helping their "clients" enroll
in drug rehabilitation programs and get jobs.

The theory: If recovering addicts are staying sober and working, the number
of burglaries and thefts often used to support their addiction will fall.

Six deputies -- paid through federal grants that help fund the city's
community-oriented policing team -- are in the program, along with 40
offenders. An additional 40 people will be monitored to see how they fare
without such intervention.

With 90 percent of those in the program staying sober, the experiment is
already being called a success.

Jeff McHale is one of the program's poster boys. He was arrested on a drug
charge in 1997. Today, he owns his own business and employs 25 people. He
is engaged to be married and is raising a teen-age son.

He says he doesn't worry about a relapse.

"I go to Calvary Chapel in Vista, that's where I find my peace," said
McHale, who in a few days will celebrate his third anniversary of sobriety.

Brown and McHale talk, sometimes only by phone, for a few minutes each
week. Brown makes sure McHale is in good spirits, in good health and off drugs.

The program allows for flexibility.

"Each client is treated differently based on what they need from us," said
Brown, one of the three sheriff's deputies who designed Operation
Housecall, which was modeled after a domestic-violence program in the same
Vista station.

Some recovering meth addicts need to be dragged into a rehabilitation
program, Brown said. Others just need a boost of self-esteem. For one
client worried about weight, Brown bought Slim-Fast.

Martinez-Salas is an example of how deputies treat each offender according
to his or her needs. Martinez-Salas may not live through Christmas. He
needs a transplant to save him from genetic liver failure. He's an
immigrant farm worker and a good father, Brown said. He was picked
randomly, as were all of Housecall's initial clients, and ended up on
Brown's weekly rounds.

Martinez-Salas isn't working. He has no medical insurance. In the past few
weeks, he has become a focus of Brown's work. The deputy is not enrolling
him in a rehab program, but putting his name onto charity lists and
bringing hand-me-down clothes from his own kids to give to Martinez-Salas'
family.

He said Martinez-Salas doesn't always seem to understand why deputies are
bringing him food and clothes. "He's saying, 'What did I do to receive all
this charity?' "

Some say the Vista program is the future. There are similarities between
Operation Housecall and what is required by Proposition 36, a measure
passed by state voters in November that calls for treatment instead of jail
for drug offenders.

No one seems to know for sure what would become of Operation Housecall if
Proposition 36 is fully implemented after expected court challenges.

Those in the program say they opposed the measure.

"That Prop. 36 is horrible," McHale said. "That is what originally helped
me -- the threat of jail."

He said that without that threat, people who already have been using drugs
and committing crime for years will go on doing so until they hit rock
bottom or die.

To be sent to prison, a user will have to be deemed "unamenable" to drug
treatment, which under the proposition means dropping out of rehabilitation
or relapsing three times, Brown said.

"No one is unamenable," he said. "Everyone's got their own rock bottom. Why
should I legislate what is your rock bottom?"

Brown admits his latest assignment is a bit unorthodox.

"Other officers find it odd that these dopers have my cell phone number and
I talk to them when I'm at home," Brown said. Some deputies don't see
Housecall as true law enforcement, he said.

"It's not how many arrests you make, it's how many people you get through
rehab," Brown said. "That's weird to a lot of cops."