A NEW WEAPON IN DRUG WAR

A $600,000 one-of-a-kind crime-fighting tool is closer to having a
home in the San Joaquin Valley.

The state Senate Public Safety Committee voted 4-0 to fund the
Standoff Chemical Agent Detector -- SCAD. It's designed to detect
fumes from methamphetamine labs.

The funding measure, a bill by Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced,
already has passed the Assembly. The full state Senate will consider
the bill when it returns from recess in August, and Gov. Davis has
expressed support for the legislation, Stanislaus County Sheriff's
Department spokesman Kelly Huston said.

Originally designed by the aerospace industry for military use, SCAD
links an infrared spectrometer with a computer system to identify
chemical clouds. It was used during the Persian Gulf War to detect
chemical weapons, and it currently is used at U.S. embassies abroad to
warn of poisonous gas attacks.

That same technology can be adapted to sniff out and identify fumes
from a methamphetamine lab, its designers say.

There is a strong need for such a tool, local law enforcement agencies
argue. Since Jan. 1, 1998, the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency
alone has investigated more than 150 methamphetamine labs, according
to agency records. In more than a third of those cases, at least one
child was present at the lab site.

During that period, agents confiscated more than 630 pounds of
methamphetamine. Each one of those pounds produces 5 to 6 pounds of
toxic waste, statistics show. That sludge is either left at the lab
site or, more frequently, dumped somewhere else. Over the past 2 1/2
years, agents have investigated 237 meth dump sites in Stanislaus County.

But that doesn't tell the whole story, Huston said.

"We're only able to interdict about 10 percent of the meth labs in
production in our area," Huston said. "About 90 percent go
undetected."

Device would be used in valley

If approved, the SCAD will be assigned to the newly formed High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, which is made up of local,
state and federal law enforcement agencies. Mounted in a converted
van, SCAD would be based in Stanislaus County but would be used in any
of the nine Central Valley counties within the task force's area.

It would be the first time SCAD has ever been used in the drug war,
Huston said.

The main SCAD selling point for members of the Senate panel was public
safety, said Huston, who testified before the committee Tuesday.

"Because of the ease of producing meth, these volatile mixtures of
chemicals are being found in highly populated areas," he said. "Not
only are there highly volatile chemical labs right next to people's
living spaces, but there also is the waste byproduct that goes into
the ground, into people's back yards. ... So, the environmental impact
is overwhelming."

SCAD also will make the job safer for peace officers. Currently,
police and firefighters often enter a house or building not knowing it
is filled with hazardous chemicals, the Senate committee was told. The
new tool will allow them to detect the danger before going inside.

Local officials learned of the SCAD technology last year from Modesto
City Councilman Mike Serpa, who serves on the California Safety
Committee. He visited Aerospace Corp. in Southern California, saw the
device in action, then brought his knowledge back to the valley. Serpa
also brought SCAD to Cardoza's attention.