DESPITE STUDY, METH USE IS NOT RARE IN CURRY COUNTY

GOLD BEACH -- A new study claims methamphetamine use is rare in most
of the United States, but Curry County sheriff's officers said it's
definitely not rare here.

"It's the drug of choice in our county," Sheriff's Captain Allen Boice
said Friday. "When the sheriff and I came to work here 20 years ago,
to make the drug you had to be a chemist. Now, practically anyone can
stir up meth in a bathtub."

A report issued in Washington this week by Ryan King, the Sentencing
Project policy analyst, says that meth is a dangerous drug but among
the least commonly used. King said rates of use have been stable since
1999, and among teenagers meth use has dropped.

"The portrayal of methamphetamine in the United States as an epidemic
spreading across the country has been grossly overstated," King said.
The Sentencing Project is a not-for-profit group that supports
alternatives to prison terms for convicted drug users and other criminals.

Boice said that's not what officers see in Curry County.

"We're certainly not seeing a reduction in meth," Boice said. "I don't
think it's on the decrease.

"It doesn't take a lot of people abusing meth to cause a lot of
trouble," Boice said.

"If something's happening on the street, that's great," Boice said.
"But I don't think there is."

Sheriff Mark Metcalf said there is no measurable reduction in meth use
in Curry County.

"There's a lot of good efforts in our county," he said. "When you
start talking about drugs, we're talking about meth."

King's report cites statistics compiled by the government to make its
case, including a 2004 survey that estimated 583,000 people used meth
in the past month, or two-10ths of 1 percent of the U.S. population.
Four times as many people use cocaine regularly and 30 times as many
use marijuana, King said.

A separate survey of high-school students showed a 36 percent drop in
meth use between 2001 and 2005.

The report acknowledged that methamphetamine is more widely used today
than it was 10 years ago. Data from the jail populations of a handful
of cities on the West Coast also show what King called a "highly
localized" problem.

Among men arrested in Phoenix, 38.3 percent tested positive for
methamphetamine. Figures for other cities are: Los Angeles, 28.7
percent; Portland, 25.4; San Diego, 36.2 percent; and San Jose,
Calif., 36.9 percent.

The report said nationally, just 5 percent of men who had been
arrested had meth in their systems. By contrast, 30 percent tested
positive for cocaine and 44 percent for marijuana.