METH USE IS ON THE RISE -- AGAIN

Recent Arrests Highlight Growing Problem

In the wake of last week's arrest of 18 East Bay men on charges of
manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine, authorities say the drug is
a growing law enforcement problem that has defied tougher laws and a
two-year state and federal war designed to combat it.

Despite last week's arrests, top prosecutors warn that the battle against
the potent stimulant -- known to street users as "meth," "crank" and "speed"
- -- is far from over.

"It (methamphetamine) is growing -- it is growing very quickly," said Robert
Mueller, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, which
covers coastal California from Monterey to Oregon.

"I think we are with methamphetamine today about where we were 10 to 15
years ago with crack cocaine," Mueller said.

National figures bear him out: The National Institute on Drug Abuse says the
number of methamphetamine-abuse emergencies increased by 237 percent from
1990 to 1994, dropped briefly in 1995 and began climbing again in 1996.

In 1997, according to the federal Drug Awareness Warning Network, there were
8,400 emergency room visits because of methamphetamine abuse -- a 100
percent increase from the preceding year.

The magnitude of the problem was demonstrated during last week's raids after
the indictment of 22 people in Contra Costa and Solano counties by a federal
grand jury in Oakland. Investigators seized 129 pounds of methamphetamine
and the chemicals used to make it.

However, the mass arrests were hardly the first Bay Area skirmish against
methamphetamine dealers in recent weeks:

- -- On March 16, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested a San
Francisco man, Marco Zamora, as he allegedly tried to sell more than a pound
of methamphetamine in a McDonald's restaurant parking lot on Van Ness
Avenue. He was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury on trafficking
charges.

- -- On March 11, Joel Garcia, Miguel Angel Lopez and German Vasquez
Palormares, all of Santa Rosa, were arrested by federal narcotics agents as
they allegedly tried to sell 10 pounds of methamphetamine for $44,000.
According to federal court documents, the Santa Rosa-based operation had a
sales territory that stretched as far south as Oakland.

- -- On February 26, Jerry Reynoso, whose address is unknown, was indicted by
a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of possessing more than a
pound of methamphetamine with intent to sell.

In addition, members of a Redwood City-based cocaine-trafficking ring who
were indicted by a federal grand jury last month also are suspected of
dealing in large quantities of methamphetamine.

A Chronicle review of federal court records shows that nine people have been
charged with methamphetamine trafficking in the San Francisco federal court
district so far this year -- and that does not include the cases filed in
the district's Oakland or San Jose offices.

Three of those cases involve alleged drug networks that stretched as far as
Colorado, Virginia and North Dakota.

The volume of meth cases seems to be increasing -- as does the number of
methamphetamine "kitchens" being seized by police.

According to Mike Van Winkle, a spokesman for the state Department of
Justice, in 1996, the state's 400- plus narcotics agents seized 835 speed
laboratories, about 60 of which were in the Bay Area. A year later, they
seized 946 labs, 100 of which were in the Bay Area. Last year, they shut
1,006 labs, but no breakdown of their locations was available yet.

The state's figures do not begin to tell the full story, however: While most
California jurisdictions turn to the Department of Justice for lab seizures,
narcotics task forces in Riverside and San Bernardino counties conduct their
own clandestine-lab operations. They closed an additional 500 labs last
year, Van Winkle said.

If the number of labs being busted is large, the amount of drugs being
seized is staggering. Last year, the state seized 6.5 tons of processed
methamphetamine and an even larger quantity of the precursor chemicals used
to make speed, Van Winkle said.

"We used to get more drugs than chemicals," he said. "Now we are seeing just
the opposite. . . . We are seizing a lot of meth that is still in solution
- -- it isn't meth yet, and doesn't even count."

Van Winkle said methamphetamine sales and use skyrocketed in the mid-1990s
and has not really tapered off since.

"Five years ago, we used to say we were fighting four drugs: marijuana, LSD,
cocaine and methamphetamine," Van Winkle said. "Now we devote about 75
percent of our resources to methamphetamine, all by itself."