VIOLENCE-DRUG LINK DISPUTED

Justice Department Report Contradicts Common Perception

Results of a U.S. Justice Department study of methamphetamine use in five
Western cities, including San Jose, suggest the connection between the drug
and violent crime may be overstated -- a conclusion disputed by one of Santa
Clara County's top domestic-violence prosecutors.

The report by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) released Tuesday in
San Diego during a two-day meeting of the Methamphetamine Interagency Task
Force outlines use of the drug in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose,
P)ortland and Phoenix.

A total of 7,355 people arrested in those communities for a variety of
offenses in 1996 and 1997 agreed to participate in the project, 922 of them
users of methamphetamine. A vast majority volunteered urine samples, while
those who declined provided information about their personal use of drugs,
researchers said.

According to the study, meth users were found "significantly less likely"
than other drug arrestees to be charged with a violent offense. The largest
segment -- about 40 percent of adult users of the cheap, illegal stimulant
participating in the study -- reportedly were charged with drug or alcohol
violations. By contrast, 25 percent were booked for property offenses and
only 16 percent were arrested for violent behavior.

Non-meth arrestees, on the other hand, were "significantly more likely to be
arrested for a violent offense, contrary to a common perception that
associates methamphetamine with violent behavior," the report said.

Noting the differences, Jack Riley, director of the NIJ's drug-abuse
monitoring program, said the results were not particularly surprising.

"I think it's a common misconception that methamphetamine is concretely
linked to violent crime. I've never seen that before, (just) as it was never
observable with cocaine," Riley said. "That's not to say meth is not
involved in violent crime. But it is not disproportionately linked to it."

But Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu disputed some of the study's
conclusions.

"Any physician will tell you methamphetamine leads to paranoia," Sinunu
said. "It's a known medical fact that paranoia is what often causes people
to kill. This is a stimulant long associated with violence. I've seen the
craziness in meth users."

Findings in the voluntary study showed that among the 180 meth users
interviewed in San Jose, 26 percent were picked up for violent crimes, 39
percent for drug and alcohol offenses, 24 percent for property crimes and 11
percent for all other offenses.

In the five cities surveyed, the majority of users in the 12-month study
were white males, ranging from 54 percent in San Jose to 94 percent in Portland.