COUNTIES COLLECT MONEY TO FIGHT METH

VANCOUVER -- Since federal law enforcement efforts joined local ones to put
the squeeze on illegal drug trafficking along the Interstate 90 corridor,
methamphetamine cookers and sellers have moved elsewhere -- including
Southwest Washington.

Now, $200,000 in federal dollars will come directly to Clark, Cowlitz and
Lewis counties for police training, equipment and investigations primarily
aimed at shutting down mid-to large-size meth operations.

"I want to send a loud and clear message to criminals and drug pushers: You
will not continue to get away with it," U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver,
announced Friday. "Southwest Washington is a great place to live but a
terrible place to use and distribute drugs."

The three counties recently were added to the federal High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area Program because despite diligent efforts against the meth
trade, the region remains "overwhelmed" with methamphetamine- related
crime, Baird said during a news conference called to announce approval of
the federal money.

In Clark County, 80 percent of forgery, fraud and identity theft crimes can
be linked to the use of meth and cocaine, Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas
said.

The increase in burglaries and other property crimes within the city also
means, "Somebody's supporting a drug habit," said acting Chief Brian
Martinek of the Vancouver Police Department.

"Meth is, if not the, one of the main threats to society right now,"
Martinek said.

The federal program money will buy items such as disposable coveralls and
purifying respirators worn by police inside meth labs, as well as
electronic surveillance equipment. It will allow Clark County law
enforcement officials to tap into the program's intelligence database in
Seattle. And it will train police in how to handle the clandestine labs and
support long-term, intensive investigations.

Clark County will receive $100,000, and Cowlitz and Lewis counties will get
$50,000 each.

Meth production in Washington is often fed by shipments of pseudoephedrine,
an ingredient common in nasal decongestants, which can be bought legally in
large quantities in Canada, Baird said.

Or meth can be shipped into the state from huge "superlabs" in California,
said Commander Keith Kilian of the Clark-Skamania Drug Task Force. Shutting
down a large meth operation in Clark County could mean closing, or at least
slowing down, a related illegal drug operation in another state, he said.

The meth lab problem is growing, Kilian said. So far this year, the task
force has shut down 25 labs, compared with 17 during the same period last year.

Meth's low price, prolonged high and extreme addictiveness have made it
popular in Western, primarily rural states, including Idaho, Utah and
Washington. But users can be more violent than other addicts, and meth's
use is spreading east.

Some "Bible Belt states are suffering huge increases in production and
use," Lucas said.

Baird, who saw meth's effects firsthand as a psychologist and went on to
found the 89-member bipartisan Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control
Methamphetamine, said he hoped program money would flow at about $200,000
for several years. Exact amounts are subject to change, however, depending
on the federal budget, he said.

Prevention efforts must continue, and more money is needed for treatment,
Baird said, calling treatment of meth addicts "desperately difficult." But
choking the meth supply will eventually result in fewer users, he said.

The new federal money will help turn around what has been a decade- long
rise in meth production and use, Baird said. But the process won't be quick.

"I don't think we're done with this," he said. "I think we'll be dealing
with this for a decade or so."