LAWMAKERS PLEDGE ACTION ON METH PROBLEM

It will take a few weeks for details to become clear, but lawmakers who
took part in the Central Valley Methamphetamine Summit are pledging to
introduce legislation to address some of the concerns raised by the
participants.

Law enforcement officials and others at the summit, held Tuesday in Fresno,
asked for more federal agents, more equipment, and tighter laws and
regulations to help address the region's meth problem, especially the
hundreds of industrial-sized meth manufacturing labs that are scattered
throughout rural California.

The summit was organized by the state's two senators, Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer, and Ceres Rep. Gary Condit and Hanford Rep. Cal Dooley, all
Democrats, partly in response to an investigative report published Oct. 8
in The McClatchy Co.'s California newspapers, including The Modesto Bee.

With the 107th Congress still getting itself organized and a new president
awaiting inauguration, staff members said it likely will be several weeks
before specific plans can be made to deal with issues raised at the summit.

One piece of legislation that already is being prepared would address an
issue that got little attention at the summit -- the difficulty that many
meth users have in getting drug treatment if they do not have health insurance.

At the summit, Boxer's staff distributed a pledge to introduce a bill that
would help ensure treatment on demand for chronic users of meth and other
drugs.

Saying that the number of substance abusers who are not in treatment
exceeds the number who are, Boxer proposed boosting federal funding for
state, local and nonprofit drug treatment programs by an unspecified
amount. She said the bill for unmet treatment needs in California alone is
$330 million.

A Boxer staff member said the bill is likely to be introduced within a week
or two of the inauguration.

In addition, Boxer and Dooley said at the summit that they plan to convene
a second summit dealing with treatment and other issues, such as prevention
and education, related to reducing the demand for drugs.

Another summit participant, Rep. Douglas Ose, R-Sacramento, will propose
adding several counties to the federally-designated High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area in the Central Valley, a spokesman said.

That task force combines federal, state and local enforcement personnel in
a coordinated attack on the meth trade.

Ose spokesman Yier Shi said the congressman wants to extend the existing
high-intensity trafficking area, which stretches from Sacramento to
Bakersfield, to encompass the northern Sacramento Valley as well.