REPORT FINDS SURGE IN U.S. METH USE

WASHINGTON (AP) - A surge in methamphetamine trafficking and use,
particularly in the Midwest and Northwest, shows how America's national drug
problem has evolved into local epidemics, according to a government report
released Wednesday.

The report by Barry McCaffrey, the administration's drug policy control
chief, describes the war on drugs in 31 battlegrounds known as high
intensity drug trafficking areas.

>From the Mexican border to the streets of New York, these areas have
serious drug problems that also affect other parts of the country.

``We do not just have a national drug problem. What we really have is a
series of local drug epidemics,'' McCaffrey said.

In the Midwest, for instance, authorities this year seized hundreds of
secret drug labs. In the first half of 1999, local and federal law
enforcement seized 238 meth or ``speed'' labs in Kansas, 242 in Iowa and 223
in Missouri, according to the report.

In Washington state, nearly 500 illegal meth labs, a record number, are
expected to be dismantled this year, the report said. That projection is
proof that meth consumption is ``escalating in nearly all communities'' in
the Northwest, the report said.

The high trafficking areas, McCaffrey said, ``serve as catalysts for
coordination of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to
confront drug trafficking.''

Federal funds for the effort have risen from $25 million in 1990 to $190
million in 2000.

The New York-New Jersey area remains a center for narcotics trafficking.
While all drugs can be found in the area, heroin and cocaine dominate
because of the profits and potential violence they generate, the report
said. The demand for crack has fallen, but it is still available and being
actively distributed.

In Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, marijuana is ``the number one cash
crop,'' with the states producing over 1.6 million outdoor marijuana
plants - over 40 percent of the nationwide total, according to the report.

Since Appalachia was designated a high trafficking area last year, law
enforcement agencies have made almost 2,000 arrests and destroyed nearly
half a million marijuana plants.

Among the 31 high trafficking areas ranging from Hawaii to New England, the
report also found:

- -An increasing amount of Canadian grown marijuana is being smuggled into the
United States and often is trade for cocaine. The Royal Canadian Mounted
Police estimates the annual marijuana production at 800 tons.

- -Atlanta is the nation's major southeast distribution point for
methamphetamine, which is smuggled in as a finished product from areas
including California and northern Mexico.

- -In central Florida, heroin is an increasing problem, with the number of
heroin-related deaths in the Orlando area tripling since 1994.

- -Chicago is a major drug trafficking hub for Mexican, Colombian and Nigerian
criminal organizations, but street gangs account for most of the local drug
distribution.