CALIFORNIA MAIN SOURCE OF METH, DEA CHIEF SAYS

Asa Hutchinson is visiting 30 states in three months in an attempt to raise
awareness of the methamphetamine problem.

But Wednesday in Fresno, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration chief
left no doubt that he had reached the problem's epicenter.

"As I travel to Tennessee or Arkansas or Iowa and a whole bunch of other
states," Hutchinson said, "invariably I hear that the bulk of the
methamphetamine is coming from superlabs in California."

Hutchinson appeared at the Fresno Convention Center with state Attorney
General Bill Lockyer amid a legislation and law enforcement crowd.

He pledged continued support for the battle against methamphetamine, the
production of which is a major illicit industry in the San Joaquin Valley
and other rural areas of California.

There were no announcements of increased funding or other assistance to the
valley. But Hutchinson did recite a long list of previous assistance. And
he said that one purpose of his stop in Fresno was to see whether more help
is needed.

"We've put additional DEA resources here to back up our local law
enforcement," he said. "We're going to continue to evaluate that."

Any additional help would be welcomed by state and local law enforcement
officers who are fighting a lucrative, often violent drug industry more
typical of far-away countries in Central and South America.

While cocaine and heroin may be processed and packaged in distant
laboratories, methamphetamine is made right here.

"Probably four-fifths of the meth production in the United States
originates in California, and that's why we have a special burden and
responsibility to try to address these problems," Lockyer said.

"In California last year, we had 236 of these superlabs," he continued,
using a law enforcement term to describe labs capable of producing dozens
of pounds of meth per batch. "The next highest state in terms of superlabs
is Texas with 18."

That is not to say, however, that there is no international angle to the
meth issue.

Hutchinson said DEA officials are working to stop traffickers from bringing
vast amounts of pseudoephedrine -- a decongestant that the labs convert
into meth -- across the border from Canada.

"It is unregulated in Canada," he said. "We're pushing them to regulate
pseudoephedrine, to eliminate that source of supply from manufacturers."

He urged Americans to do what they can to reduce demand for the drug by
discouraging its use, whether through education and treatment or more
controversial methods.

"I challenge employers to ask yourselves, 'Do you have a drug testing
program in the workplace?' If you have a drug testing plan, do you follow
that with an employee assistance plan (to provide users) with counseling
and assistance that they need to get over that addiction and be a
productive employee?"

Hutchinson praised a recent Supreme Court decision expanding the power of
public schools to require drug testing of students who participate in
extracurricular activities.

"It should never be mandated,"he said, "but it is an option that can now be
considered, whether there should be drug testing in the schools. That's
something that every school board should evaluate."