TULARE COUNTY TAKES ON METH

Agency Working With Model Set by San Diego Co. to Curb Drug's Use.

VISALIA -- Tulare County officials gathered Tuesday to hear a
presentation from a San Diego County consultant on organizing a
multi-agency task force to fight methamphetamine use.

Local officials are forming their own task force using the San Diego
County model, and they hope better coordination of law enforcement,
substance-abuse treatment, health and other community resources will
equal more success in battling the illegal drug.

"We're looking at who's doing it here, why they are doing it," said
Randy Davis, prevention program supervisor for Alcohol & Drug Program
Prevention & Treatment Services for the Tulare County Health and
Human Services Agency.

The county's task force, set up at the behest of the Board of
Supervisors, includes a general group and a steering committee.

Davis said the group has its own pot of money and can tap into other
funding sources once it gets organized and begins to share data, set
priorities and create projects

Leading Tuesday's workshop was Kathy Valdez, a consultant who also
works with San Diego County's Methamphetamine Strike Force.

The San Diego County strike force, organized in 1996, collected data
on the meth problem there, then came up with recommendations for
battling addiction and meth-associated crime, Valdez said.

Media outreach was key to getting the community involved in the
group's projects to fight methamphetamine addiction, she said.

Among the San Diego County group's projects were the creation of a
telephone hot line and Web site to provide information on community
substance abuse treatment and assistance.

The group also created programs to ensure compliance with laws on the
sales of meth precursor materials, to enforce bans on selling glass
pipes and other paraphernalia used to take meth and to set up
affordable housing that keeps criminal and drug related elements out.

Tulare County has a growing problem with methamphetamine abuse. Newly
compiled records show the number of Tulare County residents seeking
meth-related medical treatment increased 236% between 2001 and 2005.

Tulare and other Valley counties also used to be hot spots of
methamphetamine producing "super labs" until recent years, when more
production of the drug shifted to Mexico.

One area the county hopes to concentrate on is earlier identification
and treatment for drug-addicted women who are pregnant, Davis said.

She hopes the Tulare County group will begin working on projects next year.