OFFICIALS GATHER FOR METH SUMMIT

FRESNO - Law enforcement and federal, state and local elected leaders
convened here Tuesday to develop a "to-do list" to tackle the
methamphetamine problem in the Central Valley.

Talk about the need for more funds, more federal and local personnel,
better ways to protect children and more stringent rules on cleaning up
former meth lab sites rose to the top of the agenda at the Central Valley
Methamphetamine Summit.

Several officials pointed to what they called the success of the Central
Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which was formed in 1999 to
battle methamphetamine operations in the nine Central Valley counties.

Nineteen clandestine labs were seized in Kern County in 1999, according to
data at the summit from the Western States Information Network, which
tracks crime figures.

"We need to try to do a better job of communicating to legislators in
Washington the major goal California plays in methamphetamine," said
Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

In addition to more money for the area, he also would like to run two
surveillance airplanes out of Fresno.

He said he gets about 14 requests per day from local law enforcement
agencies for airplane surveillance of areas where methamphetamine may be
manufactured, but can only respond to about five daily.

Several police chiefs and sheriffs said the area could use more federal law
enforcement personnel because of the region's growing population and
because other regions have a higher proportion of federal law enforcement
based on population.

Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks also agreed more personnel is needed.

"There is a lack of bodies," said William Shipley, an assistant U.S.
attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fresno. "There is no substitute
for human eyeballs."

Some said efforts need to continue to get federal dollars to fight the
problem, while others said other states need tighter controls on purchasing
chemicals that are used to make methamphetamine.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she considers methamphetamine
the No. 1 drug problem facing the region.

She said agencies raided 70 labs, including 54 superlabs capable of
producing 20 to 200 pounds of high-purity methamphetamine per cooking cycle.

She said one-third of all seized methamphetamine labs in the country are
seized are in California.

Feinstein said the federal government has helped fund the High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area for three years. Now, Gov. Gray Davis has proposed
$40 million in state funds, in the 2001-2002 budget, to continue the work
begun with federal funds.

Not everyone who spoke at the summit agreed how the money could best be
spent, or if the larger part should go toward equipment.

Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said the High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area and Kern County should be able to make a strong case to
the governor for a significant part of those funds.

"We still need to create consensus from the valley communities on how that
money should be used," said state Sen. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.

A second discussion focused on the impacts methamphetamine has on children,
social services and the environment.

Suzanne Schenk, director of substance abuse programs at the Central
California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, urged the establishment for more
employment and educational opportunities for women so they don't return to
methamphetamine after they are released from prison.

"The recidivism rate is very high," Schenk said.

Others in attendance called for more education.

"Until we have demand reduction, we're going to have to keep having these
conferences," said Clifford Garoupa, a human services instructor and
coordinator of the drug and alcohol studies program at Fresno City College.

"We need to fight it on all fronts," U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.,
said. "We need to fight it on the demand side and on the supply side."