STATE SEEKS AID TO FIGHT DRUGS

Oregon has become one of the nation's leaders in drug trafficking and drug
use, and it needs federal help to combat the problem, the state's two U.S.
senators said Thursday.

Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden have asked the Clinton administration to
designate Oregon as a "high intensity drug trafficking area" - a special
category that would qualify the state for $3 million to $5 million in
federal funds to beef up enforcement.

"Particularly in rural Oregon, and Southern Oregon to be exact, the meth
labs and drug trade moving through our state are shocking," Smith said by
telephone from Washington, D.C.

Positioned on the Pacific Rim, Oregon has become a major conduit for drug
traffic up and down Interstate 5, Smith said. It also has become a place
where manufacturers and growers produce marijuana, methamphetamine and
hallucinogenics for distribution to states as far away as Hawaii, North
Carolina and Florida, he said.

"We just don't want any drug trafficker to find a safe harbor in Oregon,"
he said. "We want to tighten the noose around drug dealers in our state."

Smith and Wyden wrote a joint letter to Gen. Berry McCaffery, head of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, seeking the special drug
enforcement designation. In the letter, the senators said crackdowns in
populated areas have sent the drug trade into rural communities where it's
harder to detect and stop.

"In these areas, limited law enforcement resources are stretched over large
areas of land, allowing drugs to continue flowing unchecked through the
state," the senators stated in the letter.

Smith said the request for the new designation for Oregon has the backing
of local law enforcement agencies as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. The state
attorney general's office offered its support as well.

"We support any efforts to bring additional resources to bear on what we
perceive as a growing problem," said Kristen Grainger, executive assistant
to Attorney General Hardy Myers.

A number of recent large drug busts in towns such as Silverton, northeast
of Salem, underscore the need, Grainger said. "There's definitely a problem
here. It's been documented in the media and by law enforcement."

In their letter, Smith and Wyden argued that a marked increase in drug use
has accompanied the rise in drug production and dealing. While seizures of
meth labs rose dramatically in the 1990s, the number of juveniles in drug
treatment programs "has increased at an alarming rate, from 1,742 in 1991
to 4,028 in 1996," the letter stated.

Additionally, a study released by the Office of National Drug Control
Policy indicated that 27 percent of women arrested in Portland tested
positive for heroin and related opiates, the highest usage in the country,
according to the letter.

If Oregon gets the official designation as a major drug state, federal
dollars would pay for a plan to battle the trafficking, Smith said. The
plan would involve federal enforcement agencies coordinating with local
police, sheriffs and state police to crack down on the illegal drug trade.

California and Washington already qualify for the extra federal funding,
Smith said, as do a number of Rocky Mountain states.

"Oregon has been too long without assistance, fighting alone against the
national and international drug traffickers," Smith said.

"It's time for the federal government to stand up to the drug dealers who
prey on Oregon's youth," Wyden added in a news release. "We're calling on
Gen. McCaffery to give our police officers all the help he can to protect
our communities and drive the drug traffickers out of our state."

Copyright (c) 1998 The Register-Guard