VALLEY'S METH VICE NOW AFFLICTS NATION

WASHINGTON - Methamphetamine has now spread well beyond the Central
Valley to become the leading drug problem in a majority of local
communities nationwide, a new survey shows. Though still toxically
rooted in the Valley, meth production and use have been bleeding
across both state and international borders.

"We certainly don't have a hold on the meth problem," Bill
Ruzzamenti, director of the Fresno-based Central Valley High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, said Tuesday. "It has gone
coast to coast, unfortunately."

Officials in every region except the Northeast called meth their top
drug problem, according to a survey of 500 counties by the National
Association of Counties.

Law enforcement officials in 58 percent of the counties labeled meth
as their biggest drug challenge, surpassing heroin and cocaine.

By contrast, officials identified cocaine as the major problem in 19
percent of the counties and marijuana as the major problem in 17
percent of the counties surveyed.

Eighty-seven percent of the counties surveyed found an increase in
the number of meth-related arrests starting three years ago. The
upper Midwest, Northwest and Southwest report the biggest change,
though the rate of increase has slowed somewhat over the past year.

The meth spread, in turn, carries a long shadow with it. Officials in
70 percent of the counties surveyed blamed meth for an increase in
the number of local robberies and burglaries, and many counties
similarly report having to remove more children from meth-tainted families.

"That's something," Ruzzamenti said, "that we've been dealing with
for some time in California."

Federally funded and locally staffed, for the most part, the Central
Valley HIDTA coordinates anti-meth efforts in a nine-county region
from Sacramento in the north to Kern in the south. When it was
established six years ago, Ruzzamenti said, federal estimates were
that 50 percent to 60 percent of the nation's illegal meth production
came from California.

Now, Ruzzamenti said, federal officials estimate that 50 percent to
60 percent of the meth used in the United States comes from labs in Mexico.

"That's been a pretty dramatic shift," Ruzzamenti said.

Most of the Valley's illegal labs once could be found within five
miles of state Route 99, Ruzzamenti said. Now, though he noted that
meth-lab dump sites are still showing up in Stanislaus and Merced
counties, among other places, the region's labs have shifted to far
more remote locations.

As an example, Ruzzamenti recalled receiving a phone call from a New
Jersey law enforcement official. New Jersey authorities had recently
seized a significant meth lab, a find, Ruzzamenti said, that came
"out of the blue" for the region.

"With the growth of this drug from the rural areas of the Western and
Northwestern regions of this country and its slow but continuing
spread to the East, local law enforcement officials see it as their
No. 1 drug problem," the survey concludes.

The survey's other findings include:

* In 24 counties surveyed, officials report that between 75 percent
and 100 percent of all arrests are related to methamphetamine.

* Only 16 percent of counties surveyed report hosting a meth
rehabilitation program.

* Sixty-two percent of the counties report an increase in domestic
violence cases related to meth, and 53 percent report an increase in
simple assault cases linked to the drug.

"Local law enforcement officials acknowledge that for every lab they
close down, 10 new ones are created," the survey notes.

Meth's nationwide spread has already become abundantly apparent to
lawmakers, roughly 100 of whom now count themselves as members of the
House Meth Caucus. The proliferation is spurring wider support for a
bill written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which would limit
access to cold medicines containing an ingredient used in meth production.

The bill, co-written with Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., would move cold
medicines containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter. The bill
would also limit the quantity of such medicines that an individual
could purchase monthly. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled
to consider the bill next week.

Fresno Democrat Jim Costa has co-sponsored similar legislation in the
House, and Mariposa Republican George Radanovich supports it, as well.