LAWMAKERS STRUGGLE TO FUND DRUG WAR

SACRAMENTO There's a tug-of-war in the Capitol between legislators from
the Central Valley and Southern California over funds to combat
methamphetamine.

In the recently approved state budget, there is $30 million to find and
shut down laboratories producing the illegal drug in the Central Valley.

"By all accounts, the Central Valley has seen a dramatic rise in the
methamphetamine production and distribution, especially in the form of
super-sized dangerous clandestine laboratories," Sen. Charles Poochigian,
R-Fresno, wrote recently in defending the need for the new funding.

His letter was addressed to Assemblyman Carl Washington, D-Paramount, who
is trying to siphon off $10 million from the Central Valley funds for an
existing program in seven counties, including Riverside County, to help
children endangered by methamphetamine.

"We can't have a war on methamphetamine without a war to rescue innocent
children placed in harm's way by criminally negligent parents," Washington
said.

Caught in the middle:The conflict has particularly upset Central Valley
lawmakers like Poochigian and Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, D- Fresno, because
they both have supported the children's program, but insist it needs to
find another source of money.

At this point, the odds seem to favor the Central Valley because the
governor is the one who proposed boosting the anti-methamphetamine campaign
there from $1.5 million to $30 million.

But legislators are wary of the delegation from the Los Angeles Basin, by
far the largest in the Capitol.

Office of Criminal Justice Planning officials said the Los Angeles region
is the beneficiary of a host of state and federal law enforcement
activities to combat illegal drugs, from $10.5 million in federal money
specifically for anti-meth work to helicopters, federal agents, and other
resources.

Methamphetaminecan cause a range of health problems from hallucinations to
heart trouble and tissue deterioration. The chemical is produced by
small-time criminals and by major drug dealers in farmhouses, suburban
homes, warehouse and other hidden locations throughout the state.

Cracking down: In the Coachella and Imperial valleys, arrests have run the
gamut from busts at small, rural labs to large-scale operations such as one
shut down in Mecca in May. In that bust, Riverside County Sheriff's
deputies arrested four peopleand seized a suspected methamphetamine lab
capable of producing $500,000 worth of the drug.

Also in May, border agents at the Calexico Port of Entry arrested a
16-year-old Mexicali girl after they seized 35 pounds -- or $322,000 worth
- -- of methamphetamine.

At the heart of the legislative conflict is the struggle to ramp up law
enforcement efforts to keep up with the meth producers.

Statewide in 1999, investigators discovered more than 2,000 meth labs,
nearly double the number found five years earlier, according to the state
Office of Criminal Justice Planning. California produced 80 percent of the
nation's supply.

As evidence of the drug's demand, OCJP said more than a third of all state
prison parolees tested positive for meth use, more than any other illegal drug.

"The popularity of methamphetamine in the prison population underscores the
growing popularity of the drug in the general population," the OCJP said in
a report.

By far, the largest number of labs were found in the Los Angeles region,
979 in 2000 compared to 193 in the Central Valley. This Los Angeles edge
includes the so-called super labs, which produce 20 pounds or more of meth.

The actual total volume produced by all labs in the two regions is unclear.

To Washington and the Los Angeles district attorney's office, which is
lobbying hard for the lawmaker's measure, Assembly Bill 41, this justifies
tapping the $30 million pot for their program, which is losing federal support.

" AB 41 gives us an opportunity to conduct a complete war on
methamphetamines" by meeting the needs of children living in houses where
the drug is produced, Washington said.